Issei - The Gaming Gear
by SeerKing
Summary: Getting the [Boosted Gear] is expected for Issei. What if he gained it a month early and another one as well? Let the Games Begin... IsseiXHarem (if it wasn't, it wouldn't be DXD). Now has a TVTropes page!
1. Chapter 1

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

'Oppai!' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 1: Boosted Gear and Gaming Gear**

 _Hyōdō Residence_

Hyōdō Issei considered himself to be a fairly normal high school student, albeit somewhat more perverted. He viewed the female form to be perfection incarnate, especially their Oppai!

That minor (to him) quirk aside, he was average. Average height, average grades, average fitness. Below average in attractiveness to girls because he was a pervert, but Issei considered himself very honest, so it didn't bother him.

' _How did I get into this situation?_ ' Issei wondered as the knife wielding man in a balaclava stalked towards him menacingly, his terrified parents off to one side.

It had been an ordinary dinner for the Hyōdō family. His father grumbling about how expensive everything was, his mother constantly nagging him to stop being perverted and him putting up with it.

The next thing he knew, this whacko had stormed in and had forced them into the living room at knifepoint. That had been several hours ago and the man had become increasingly nervous, alternating between pacing around and shouting hysterically at his father and mother.

Not a minute ago, he had taken a call on his cell phone and gotten even more nervous, not to mention angry.

"You fuckers!" he had yelled, "Purifiers my ass! I'll fucking murder you! AFTER I slice up the family I'm with! Their deaths are on _your_ head!"

He had thrown his phone against the wall, smashing it to pieces, before taking his knife -a bowie knife, Issei noted absently- and starting towards him with a mad grin on his face.

"N-Now there…easy…" Issei backed away from the maniac, "I haven't done anything to you!"

"You're here." the man replied hoarsely, "That's all that matters."

As Issei backed into the wall, the man lurched forwards, knife drawn back and ready to pierce him.

"Gaah!" the brown-haired boy yelped as he dodged to the side, the blade barely missing him and slamming into the wall. Landing in a sprawled heap, Issei scrambled to his feet and desperately wished that his neighbours would hear the commotion and call the police.

"Die, brat!" the man roared as he heaved his knife out of the wall and cut at Issei this time. Issei's desperate reaction to lean back saved his life again, but he was cut across his left cheek.

' _He…he's seriously trying to kill me!_ ' Issei thought in a panic as the pain hit him, ' _I-I don't want to die yet!_ '

A voice sprung up in his mind then, female, powerful…and ancient.

 **[Then you shall not]** she said, **[Take my gift, young one…take the gift of Gaia, mother of earth, and live!]**

My right arm shone with blue light as something materialised around it…a gauntlet. It looked anomalous for a moment before settling in as what looked like a western knight's gauntlet.

"Y-you…what the fuck are you?!" the man snarled as he started forwards, "You're one of those freaks aren't ya? A Sacred Gear user!"

Issei would have replied, had everything not frozen and turn blue.

"Now what?" he groaned. Then he jumped slightly as a window appeared in front of him.

 **[The Sacred Gear [Gamer's Gear] has now been activated!]**

 **World Pause Activated!**

 **[Running startup sequence…]**

 **Loading Stats…done!**

 **Loading Levels…done!**

 **Loading Skills…done!**

 **Loading Titles…done!**

 **Do you wish to scan for other Sacred Gears?**

 **Y/N**

Issei stared at it for a moment in incomprehension. What the hell was a Sacred Gear? Why did he have one, let alone possibly two? Would they help him survive?

Mind awhirl with questions, Issei shakily pressed the 'Y' button.

 **[Searching…**

 **Searching…**

 **Searching…**

 **...done!**

 **Longinus Sacred Gear detected!**

 **Left Arm: [Boosted Gear]**

 **Sentient existence confirmed within Sacred Gear.**

 **Established communications link?**

 **Y/N**

Again, Issei stared at the screen in disbelief. There was a sentient creature _inside his left arm_?! What the hell!? There were so many things wrong with that fact that it made his head swim, but he persevered and pressed the 'Y' key again.

 **[Establishing communications link…done!]**

 **Sacred Gears unlocked!**

 **[Gamer's Gear: Stage 1 Form]**

 **[Boosted Gear: Twice Critical Form]**

 **Skills unlocked!**

 **[Gamer's Mind] (LV MAX)**

 **[Gamer's Body] (LV MAX)**

 **[Materialise Sacred Gear] (LV MAX)**

 **[Boost!] (LV1)**

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] (LV1)**

Issei's eyes crossed at the information overload he was getting here. He forced himself to calm down. He could read all of this later. For the moment, all he needed to know was how he could use what he had to beat this guy -frozen in blue in front of him- and survive.

Reaching out, he looked for one that might be useful, deciding to see what the [Boosted Gear] was all about.

 **[Boosted Gear: Twice Critical Form]**

 **The Gauntlet of the Red Dragon Emperor. The prison for Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon. The Boosted gear grants its wielder incredible power, but can be overused, destroying the user's body from power overload.**

 **\- Grants the skill [Boost!] when active.**

 **\- Passively grants the skill [Lesser Draconic Charisma] even when dematerialised.**

 **\- Twice Critical Form restricts the [Boost!] skill. See [Boost!] entry for further details.**

 **\- User is granted an armour value of 50 when the Boosted Gear is materialised.**

 **\- User is weak against Anti-Dragon magic and magic items.**

Holy shit.

He quickly moved to check the **[Boost!]** skill.

 **[Boost!] (Active/Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **The special ability of the Twice Critical and Boosted Gear Sacred Gears. Although the first is seen as weak, it does not pay to underestimate its use.**

 **\- Doubles the STR, STA, DEX and MP of the user every ten seconds.**

 **\- Current Boost Limit: three times.**

 **\- Restriction: Cannot boost more than twice in [Twice Critical Form].**

 **\- Duration of Cumulative Boosting: 3 minutes.**

"OK, this is all nice and everything, but how do I use the **[Boosted Gear]**?" I muttered. This cued another screen to pop up.

 **[Summon your fighting spirit, imagine calling forth a dragon and call out its name. That is only for the first time. Afterwards, you will be able to call it forth and dismiss it at will merely by calling its name.]**

Well that's useful.

Issei concentrated and instinctively thrust forth his left arm. **"[Boosted Gear]**!"

In a flash of red light, a gauntlet materialised on his left arm. It was red, with a single emerald green gem mounted above where his hand was. Set slightly above it was a smaller orange fiery jewel. On either side was a golden prong.

 **[BOOST!]**

 **[You have been affected by the Status Effect [Boost!]! Your power has been doubled!]**

 **[World Pause is being undone. Please prepare for imminent mortal combat]**

"Oh crap!" Issei muttered. He looked at the madman who had been trying to kill him. He was moving, albeit fractionally. The boy scowled.

"He who strikes first, wins!" Issei roared. He was seriously pissed at this guy for terrorising his family for the past several hours and for almost killing him just now.

As he drew his left arm back, he absently noticed something floating above the man's head.

 **Yoshimura Ryōtarō**

 **LV 3**

 **[Purifier Outcast]**

Filing the titbit away for later, Issei drove his fist forwards as the World Pause (whatever _that_ meant. It surely couldn't mean what it sounded like…could it?) ended, the armoured fingerless gauntlet slamming into the centre of the man's balaclava-clad face.

"GAAH!" the man screamed as he reeled back, dropping his knife as he clutched at the wreck of his nose.

"Otou-san!" Issei called.

"R-right!" the salaryman nodded. He joined his son in restraining the man as Issei's mother called the police. Issei quickly dismissed both of his Sacred Gears and hoped his parents wouldn't ask about them.

When the police came and arrested the man, that subject did in fact come up.

"I could have sworn that I saw something glowing around Issei's arms." his father said with a frown.

"A common reaction to being in stressful situations." the police officer said soothingly, "Your mind tricks you into seeing things that aren't there. Given that you were being held at knifepoint for several hours, it isn't surprising that it happened, sir."

The elder Hyōdō looked dubious, but nodded.

"Now, we'll need to take statements from you at some point." the officer said, "How would two days from now be?"

"I think my boss will let me off on that day." Issei's father replied, "Is it necessary for my wife and son t get involved? I'd really rather they not have to get involved in this affair more than they already have."

"I completely understand your sentiment sir, but I am afraid that your wife will have to give a statement at least." the policeman said firmly, "Your son does not as he is a minor. Speaking of whom, he should go to the hospital to have that cut seen to."

That cued Issei's mother to start fussing over him and scolding him for being so reckless. He put up with it as he could see how worried she was. The rest of the night passed in a blur of the hospital, stinging stuff on his cut and a drive home before he passed out on his bed, exhausted.

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 _The Next Day_

 _Issei's Room_

Issei lounged on his bed with a sigh. His parents had insisted that he take the next few days off school to recover from the attack and he was bored out of his mind. He had finished all of the eroge that his friends, Matsuda and Motohama, had lent him the previous day.

' _Well…I guess I could work out how to use my other 'Sacred Gear' and see what makes it tick._ ' he thought as he looked at his right arm. Considering the way that the [Boosted Gear] had been activated…

He threw out his right arm and said, "Game on!"

As he thought it would, the **[Gamer's Gear]** appeared on his right arm. He took the time to look over it carefully and discovered an odd rectangle on the area where back of his hand was hidden. Gingerly, he pressed it, making a screen pop up.

 **[Greetings! This is a one-off tutorial on how to use [The Gamer's Gear]. To continue, please close this screen.]**

Befuddled, Issei did so.

 **[Excellent. [The Gamer's Gear] is one of only two of its type in the world. One blue, one orange. One created by Gaia, the Titaness of Earth, the other created by Tartarus, the Primordial of Darkness. The wielders of these Sacred Gears are bound to fight each other, so prepare yourself for that.]**

"Oi!" the brown-haired boy tsukkomi'd.

 **[Moving on, the [Gamer's Gear] grants you several powerful abilities, two of which are called 'Skills'. Skills are repeated actions that have been codified and turned into abilities for you to use. This can be something as mundane as washing dishes to breathing fire.**

 **The first Skill is [Gamer's Mind]. This allows you to remain calm and in control at all times. Bluntly put, you cannot be affected by fear, terror or insanity. The instant you feel these things, the skill will activate and calm you down.**

 **Next is the skill called [Gamer's Body]. This allows you to live your life like a video game. Unless a skill specifically lists it in its description, you cannot lose body parts. You have HP that represents your life, stat points that represent your physical and mental abilities and sleeping in your bed allows you to restore your HP.**

 **The rest is fairly simple. From this point on, you can receive quests in order to gain 'EXP' or experience points, which will allow you to level up. Fighting monsters, clearing dungeons and completing quests will allow you to level up faster than completing basic tasks.**

 **Your life is yours to live and, with this Sacred Gear, the sky is the limit. In order to view your status screen, merely say 'Status' aloud. The same applies for you to view your Skills.**

 **Fare thee well.**

 **-Han Jee-Han, the Original Gamer.]**

The boy sat back with a sigh as he digested everything he had learned. On one hand, this was really, really cool. On the other, he was fated to fight some unknown person with a matching orange gauntlet on his arm. This did not fill him with glee.

"{Status}" he said with a sigh.

 **Name: Hyōdō Issei**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 4| Next Level: 900 EXP**

 **Title: Oppai Baka**

 **HP: 200/200**

 **MP: 25/25**

 **STR: 12**

 **STA: 10**

 **DEX: 14**

 **INT: 9**

 **WIS: 9**

 **LUK: ?**

 **Attribute Points: 0**

 **¥: 0**

 **Special Status: Awakened Sekiryūtei (Passive) [+10 STR, STA, DEX per level, +50 HP and MP per Level], Nemesis: Haku** **ryūkō (Passive) [Your enemy is the White Dragon Emperor.], Nemesis: Orange Gamer [ Your enemy is the wielder of the orange [Gamer's Gear].**

 **Perks: - Blessing of Gaia**

 **\- Presence of the Red Dragon Emperor**

 **\- Lesser Resilience**

 **Flaws: - Open Desires: Lust**

 **\- Oppai Baka**

"What the hell is with this shit?!" Issei roared.

Seriously? His title was Oppai Baka?! He had _two_ nemeses?! What the hell was with his flaws?! Just…gaaah!

 **[Gamer's Mind] activated!**

He instantly felt himself calming down. Hoo-boy. So his skill could also prevent him from losing his temper. Nice to know.

Now that he was calmer, he pressed his title, making a smaller screen pop up.

 **[Oppai Baka]: You are well known for your breast fetish and human girls who know of this will stay away from you because of it. You suffer a penalty of -50% to any relationship gains with human girls who know of your fetish and actions.**

 **Impossible to un-equip until you lose the [Oppai Baka] Flaw.**

"I hate myself!" Issei wailed as he punched his pillow. His mother had been right, dammit. Girls like gentlemen, like that bastard Kiba Yuuto. He immediately resolved to change so he would become popular with girls! And so he would become the Harem King!

He blinked as another couple of windows popped up.

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **Gentlemanly Etiquette, Part 1: You, the Oppai Baka, are determined to change your ways and lose the flaw that prevents you getting very far with girls. The first hurdle…no peeking! Do not go peeking at any female intentionally for a week once you return to school.**

 **Quest Reward: +500 EXP,** **¥2000, Reduction in the effect of [Oppai Baka] Title and Flaw.**

 **Quest Failure: 250 EXP, Stuck with the Title and Flaw until the next time you want to try the quest.**

 **Accept?**

 **Y/N**

Issei actually felt pain. To not be able to peek at girls changing again! The horror!

' _No, no, no! For the sake of my dream, I must persevere!_ ' he told himself firmly and pressed the 'Y' button before turning his attention to the next window.

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **King of the Harem!: You wish to be a harem king. Attract, woo, seduce and gather girls for your harem.**

 **[Note: Long Term Quest]**

 **Quest Rewards: A Harem, Title: Harem King**

 **Quest Failure: Death**

 **Accept?**

 **Y/** N

Death?! From his goal?! What the hell?! Issei didn't know what to make of this until he recall the old saying Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

As he couldn't -and wouldn't- press the 'N' button, he pressed 'Y' instead. Then he turned his attention back to his stats. The Special Statuses were all fairly straightforward. He had the **[Boosted Gear]** , so he was the Sekiryūtei, simple as that, thus he had his enemy, the White Dragon Emperor. Just as obviously, as he had Gaia's **[Gamer's Gear]** ; his enemy was the one who wielded Tartarus' **[Gamer's Gear]**.

What was really intriguing him was the [Perks] and [Flaws] section.

 **[Gaia's Blessing] (Passive)**

 **The Titan Goddess of the Earth, Gaia, favours you, granting you the [Gamer's Gear]. You also have a marked affinity for the earth, leading to a 15% power increase when using Earth Magic.**

 **This Perk cannot be lost.**

 **[Presence of the Red Dragon Emperor] (Passive)**

 **As the host of Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon, you can occasionally call upon his presence, usually after you become stronger or the [Boosted Gear] evolves. Allows you to communicate with the Red Dragon Emperor in your dreams. Also grants you a 50% EXP boost to any [Draconic] Skill.**

 **This Perk cannot be lost.**

 **[Lesser Resilience] (Passive)**

 **Having been beaten on a regular basis, you have developed a resistance to it. You reduce any damage from a physical impact made by a blunt weapon wielded with less than STR 30 by half.**

 **This perk can be lost by not getting struck for seven days in a row.**

Issei was duly impressed with the three, although he felt phantom aches when he read **[Lesser Resilience]**. Oh, those kendo girls could seriously swing some mean bokken.

The **[Flaws]** were…illuminating.

 **[Open Desires: Lust] (Passive)**

 **Your lust is unrestricted and runs rampant. 60% chance of acting lewd around a female, regardless of whether they and you are in public or not.**

 **This Flaw can be lost by gaining control over your carnal desires.**

 **[Oppai Baka] (Passive)**

 **You have a breast Fetish of massive proportions, well known to everyone who knows you. Saddles you with the title [Oppai Baka].**

 **This Flaw can be lost by restraining your desires.**

Yes, he was indeed a creature who acted on his desires. Hopefully, he could get rid of these flaws soon. Gathering a Harem required some sacrifices.

"Issei!" his mother called from the kitchen.

"Coming!" he called back. Dismissing the **[Gamer's Gear]** , he padded down to the kitchen where his mother was working on lunch.

"Ah, Issei!" she said with a smile, "Do you think you could go to the store and pick up a few things for dinner?"

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **Gofer Shopping: Your mother has requested that you go and pick up some items at the local shop.**

 **Quest Reward: +50 EXP,** **¥1000, +100 Reputation with your mother.**

 **Quest Failure: 10 XP**

 **Accept?**

 **Y/N**

' _This looks like a reasonably easy quest to perform._ ' Issei considered, ' _Easy enough to 'get my feet wet' so to speak._ '

He hit the 'Y' key as he replied, "OK, Kaa-san. Do you have a list?"

After being handed a list and some money for his wallet, he headed out to do some shopping.

As he walked, he ruefully rubbed the bandage over the cut on his cheek. He had been told rather apologetically that it would leave a slight scar, but he didn't mind. He thought that a scar would look pretty badass on his face anyway.

As he walked, he decided to have a look at his skills. He had looked at **[Boost!]** yesterday, and he already knew what **[Gamer's Mind]** and **[Gamer's Body]** did, so that just left **[Lesser Draconic Charisma]**.

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00)**

 **Dragons are massive creatures, able to do a great many things, one of them being transformation into other beings. But regardless of what form they take, all dragons have a natural air of charisma about them that draws people to them. As someone who bears a Dragon-type Sacred Gear, you have inherited a small portion of this charisma.**

 **\- Grants you the Charisma stat once this entry has been read.**

 **\- Automatically adds 5 Charisma each level.**

 **\- As one who bears the [Boosted Gear], you gain a 50% EXP boost with this skill as this is a [Draconic] skill.**

Issei wasn't impressed with his Charisma stat…it was a 1. Seriously…how could someone have a CHA rating of one?! What was he, a caterpillar or something?!

Sighing, he went into the store and set about gathering everything his mother wanted. Urgh…miso soup is on the menu again…

After paying for the food, Issei headed back home, but was concerned when he saw a police car outside his house. Entering again, he was suddenly engulfed by his worried mother.

"Issei! Oh, thank Kami that you're OK?" she said.

"Err…okaaaaay…what's going on?" he asked in confusion.

"I am Inspector Fujiwara." a man in a trench coat said as he followed Issei's mother into the hallway and flashed his badge, "I am here to inform you that the man who assaulted you was found dead in his cell shortly after noon today. Murder is suspected."

"Well it wasn't me." Issei said shortly, calming his mother down after a moment.

"We know, Hyōdō-kun." the man said with a nod, "I am here to urge you to be careful, however. Whoever killed him removed his hands, feet, teeth and eyes. We are conducting a DNA test to determine who he is, but that might take sometime. You may be a target of whoever silenced him."

"Well, hell." was all Issei could say.

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 **Next Chapter: Questing for Answers**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

'Oppai!' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 2: Questing for Answers**

After discovering that his erstwhile assailant had been murdered rather brutally, the shopping he had been sent out to get had fallen to the wayside until the inspector left, but Issei handed the bag of food over to his mother just after that, and sure enough…

 **[Quest Complete!]**

 **Gofer Shopping: You have successfully completed your mother's shopping!**

 **Quest Reward: +50 EXP,** **¥1000, +100 reputation with your mother.**

It was rather odd to suddenly look inside his wallet and see that he had an extra thousand yen note. Compared to the weirdness that had been inhabiting his life since the previous day, however, Issei was easily able to roll with it.

The question was, what should he do about the attempted murderer getting murdered? Issei could easily imagine whoever had ordered the other man killed ordering Issei's death as well, which wasn't a pleasant thing to imagine.

Just as he was thinking that, another blue screen popped up.

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **Defence for the Defenceless: Dungeoneering for Life!: You are concerned that you are going to be attacked by whoever silenced your attacker from yesterday. Go conquer a dungeon to become stronger!**

 **Quest Reward: +400 EXP,** **¥3000, Random Reward.**

 **Quest Failure: +200 EXP**

 **Accept?**

 **Y/N**

Issei just stared at the screen for a moment. Seriously? He's worried about his life being at risk, so the stupid system tells him to go and risk his life. Paradox much?

With a sigh, he hit 'Y'. There wasn't anything else he could do and you never know, he might actually survive if he did this. He'd better leave right now.

"Issei! Lunch is ready."

Correction: He'd leave as soon as he'd had lunch.

 _Later_

 _Streets, Kuō Town_

The instant he set foot outside his house, a blue path appeared on the ground, leading away who knows where. Judging by the lack of a panic, Issei guessed that he was the only one who could see it.

' _Well, what's one more weird thing today?_ ' he thought philosophically as he trudged along.

He had been walking for the least fifteen minutes and he was hoping that the 'dungeon' wasn't too far away. Just a minute or two ago, he had received a notification that his effort had granted him an extra point of STA.

Issei paused as the blue path veered off into a wall, for some strange reason. He inspected it and noticed that a blue square was on the wall, so he stepped up to examine it.

 **[Warning!]**

 **You are about to enter the dungeon [Nest of the Ratlord] (LV4)**

 **Once entered, you must clear the dungeon in order to leave.**

 **Do you wish to enter?**

 **Y/N**

"Rats…" Issei said with a grimace. He didn't like the little buggers, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. He hit the 'Y' button.

Almost at once, the box vanished, along with a doorway-shaped segment of the wall it had been on, revealing steps leading down into the darkness.

"Eerie…" Issei whispered, before squaring his shoulders and walking down the stairs. Fortunately for him, as he walked, fiery torches lit the stairway every few meters. Behind him, Issei heard the sound of stone grinding as the entrance was sealed behind him.

At length, he reached the bottom of the stairs, in a circular room made of roughly hewn stone. Lying in the centre was a skeletal body wearing rags, slumped over a wooden chest.

"Ah. Starter kit." the Sekiryūtei nodded. Standard fare for early parts of most RPG games these days was to give the main character basic weapons if they were unarmed or basic armour if they were armed.

He wasn't planning on using the [Boosted Gear] until the dungeon boss as he didn't really know what would happen once the he used up the time limit on the consecutive boosts. No, it was best to use it as a trump card for the moment…or at least until he have evolved it from being a [Twice Critical].

Walking over to the skeleton, Issei clapped his hand before offering a prayer to the skeleton before gently removing it from the chest and opening it up.

Inside was a single bronze sword, complete with a leather sheath.

"Bronze? Really?!" Issei tsukkomi'd. As he (reluctantly) picked it up, a message appeared.

 **You have acquired [Bronze Short Sword]!**

 **Do you wish to equip this item? Y/N**

Hitting the 'Y' button, Issei blinked when the blade seemed to teleport into his right hand. He wondered if there was any way to view its stats.

 **[For information on this weapon, please open the Equipment menu]**

Bemused, he did so.

 **Right Hand: Bronze Short Sword**

 **Left Hand: (Empty)**

 **Head: (Empty)**

 **Body (Layer 1): Ordinary Red T-Shirt**

 **Body (Layer 2): Kuō Academy Uniform**

 **Arms: (Empty)**

 **Legs: Kuō Academy Trousers**

 **Feet: White Running Shoes**

"Err…oops…" he said, looking down at his clothes. He'd accidentally worn his school outfit today. Force of habit, he supposed. Issei dismissed that and touched the only weapon he was equipped with.

 **[Bronze Short Sword]**

 **A short sword forged from bronze, it bears no makers mark and is of average quality. It seems to be taken directly from the Bronze Age.**

 **Short Sword**

 **Slashing Damage: S+10**

 **Piercing Damage: S+5**

So basically, it was an ordinary starter weapon. Other than the fact it was from about 700 B.C.

Swinging it experimentally, Issei was surprised that it wasn't heavy, considering it was a western-style sword. Shrugging, he noticed that a door had appeared opposite the staircase…with another blue box floating in front of it.

 **[Nest of the Ratlord #1]**

 **In order to confront the Dungeon Boss, you must defeat all of his minions and pull two levers that open the way to his chamber.**

OK…that sounded relatively easy.

He cautiously entered the main part of the dungeon and was immediately confronted by one of the enemies. It was a rat the size of a ten-year-old child…standing upright on its rear legs. It wore rags and had a club made of wood in one hand.

 **Ratman Slave LV3**

 **[Scumbiter]**

It shrieked in fury as it spotted him and charged forwards with its weapon raised to strike.

"Crap!" Issei dodged to the side to avoid the strike of the club, then struck out with his own weapon, the blade severing the demi-human's tail in a spurt of blood, eliciting yet another shriek, this time of pain, from the ratman.

It whirled at him, a mix of pain, fear and rage in its eyes as it attacked him once again. Issei smacked the club away and ran the ratman through its chest with his sword. The thing choked, shuddered, then died.

 **You have defeated a [Ratman Slave]! You earn 50 EXP!**

 **Do you wish to loot the body? Y/N**

Hitting 'Y', Issei watched as a list was made on a blue screen in front of him.

 **Filthy Robe X1**

 **Filthy Loincloth X1**

 **Splintered Club X1**

 **¥200**

All of it completely useless barring the money. Looks like he couldn't depend on getting useful drops from the slaves. This prompted yet another screen to pop up.

 **Do you wish to sell these items for** **50? Y/N**

"Hell yeah!" Issei muttered and pressed the appropriate button.

 **Ratman Minions Dispatched: 1/30**

He wondered, as he continued on in, if it was his [Gamer's Mind] that was stopping him from freaking out over the fact that he had just taken his first life. Very likely, it was.

Issei discovered, on his little sojourn through the rat nest, that the slave he had killed had been one of the better equipped members of the slaves. The majority of the rest were clad in loincloths and wielded flint knives, for crying out loud. Those he kept, mostly because he liked the look of them.

"Keeeee!" a slave shrieked as it charged him, knife bared, only to have its head separated from its shoulders by a well-placed strike of Issei's blade.

"Shut up, damn it." Issei spat.

 **You have slain a Ratman Slave! You Receive 50 EXP!**

 **Ratman Minions Dispatched: 17/30**

 **You have levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **You have 5 Attribute points to spend!**

 **You have sold your drops for** **500**

"Nice." Issei grinned. He opened his menu and spent the points. Usually, he would save them, but he was a bit too weak to hoard points like that. Choosing to up his STR and DEX by three and two respectively, he immediately felt stronger once he closed the window.

He spotted a lever ahead of him, a crude one made of wood and wrapped in rags. Very gingerly, he pulled it down until it clicked into place and retracted into the wall.

"That's one down." the Sekiryūtei muttered as he turned and walked back the way he had come. The nest would be better described as a warren, one with numerous corridors leading to sub-chambers dug through stone and rock. He had been scratching an 'X' next to the tunnels he had gone down because there were so damn many of them.

Moving up the main passage, he made a mark on one side of another side junction before entering it. Eventually, he came to a room which had an altogether different breed of enemies for him. Unlike the Ratman slaves, these were not weedy specimens, but healthy and muscled. They wore armour, albeit not a lot of it, over their smocks; copper spaulders, vambraces, leather brigandines and the occasional open helm. They carried copper swords as well.

 **Clanrat LV4**

 **[Cheesethief]**

This…would be harder than the seventeen slaves he had killed.

With a shriek of anger, one Clanrat spotted him, drawing the attention of the other four present. They rushed him en-masse, brandishing their swords threateningly.

Issei backed up into the passage, limiting the Clanrats to come at him two at a time. It wasn't easy, as he had to parry and block more than attack, but he cut through them nonetheless. In about ten minutes, five ratman corpses lay at his feet as he stood panting above them.

 **You have slain X5 Clanrats! You earn 300 EXP!**

 **Ratman Minions Defeated: 22/30**

 **Do you wish to loot the bodies? Y/N**

Hitting the 'Y' button, Issei grinned as the list grew.

 **Dirty Hemp Smock X5**

 **Copper Short Sword X5**

 **Copper Spaulders X5**

 **Copper Vambraces X5**

 **Leather Brigandine X5**

 **2000**

 **Skill Book (Unknown Skill)**

Marking everything but the smocks to be kept, he sold the hemp clothing for ¥60. Then he wondered where the items he'd chosen to keep had gone, prompting a window popping up informing him of his inventory. Opening it, he pulled out the skill book, which opened yet another window.

 **[You have acquired the [Basic Swordsmanship] Skill Book!]**

 **Do you wish to learn this Skill?**

 **Y/N**

"Looks like a good skill." Issei commented, "Meh. Why not?"

After hitting the 'Y' button, Issei was shocked when the book dissolved into shards of blue light. He was even more shocked to see them fly and disappear into his chest.

 **You have learned the skill [Basic Swordsmanship]!**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Throughout the entirety of the world, the one weapon that is used the most often, barring the human body itself, is the sword. No matter what kind of sword it is, from Rapiers to Broadswords, from Dao to Katana, the sword has rightly earned its name as the Queen of Weapons throughout humanity's long and bloody history. Basic Swordsmanship is, as the title suggests, very basic thrusts and cuts.**

 **\- Grants the user the ability to carry a sword with ease.**

 **\- Passively grants the user +1 to [Slashing] Attacks.**

 **\- Passively grants the user +1 to [Piercing] Attacks.**

"OK…this is cool." Issei said and hefted his bronze sword in his hand. It had felt somewhat awkward up until a moment ago, but it now felt…right…in his hand, for lack of a better term.

Shrugging, the Sekiryūtei wandered out of the room after searching it for anything useful. Seriously, he was beginning to think he'd get nothing out of this place. The ratmen were the epitome of low-level trash mobs, with sub-par drops to top it off. Yeah, he needed the experience points, but he also needed better equipment.

The next couple of rooms he searched were empty of both enemies and anything useful, which actually wasn't much of a surprise to him. There were only eight enemies left, not counting the boss. They'd be near the other lever, if he guessed correctly. The only problem was finding it.

"Ah, there you are." Issei smirked as he entered the second-from-last room and saw the eight remaining enemies. Six of them were Clanrats, armed in the same way as the last lot, but it was the other two that gave him pause.

They were half-again as big as the Clanrats and looked twice as mean. Black fur covered them and long sinuous tails lashed behind them. The armour they wore was made of what looked like iron and covered the same areas protected by the Clanrats' armour. Clasped in their hands were, for them, halberds. For a human, they'd be axes.

 **Stormvermin LV5**

 **[Black Rat]**

This…wasn't going to be easy. Those two were the same level as he was and had better equipment than he did. Those halberds were made of iron as well. Issei may not be the best student at history, but he had read a manga called _Red River_ , which showed exactly what happened when bronze tried to compete with iron.

Bronze lost in the long run.

"Kill-kill!" one Stormvermin squeaked as it spotted him. Much to Issei's surprise, only the Clanrats attacked. The larger ratmen stayed back, guarding the lever.

Issei hacked and slashed his way through the Clanrats with greater ease than before. His height and reach advantage were complimented by his new **[Basic Swordsmanship]** skill. The Clanrats, despite their numbers, couldn't even touch him. Although they did cut his shirt and trousers more than once.

Only once the last Clanrat expired did the Stormvermin move. Wielding their iron halberds, they stalked towards Issei with slow deliberate steps designed to intimidate.

Issei noticed that they were angling to catch him in a pincer move, which was not something he was eager to let happen. He whispered, "{Inventory}" and readied himself.

"Die, Man-thing!" the one to his right squealed and charged, as the one to his left charged as well, albeit silently.

Quickly, Issei reached into the Inventory screen and pulled out a [Copper Short Sword] that he had taken from a defeated Clanrat. He then parried both attacking weapons with his own. The Copper sword bent from the impact, as expected, but it was enough to throw the Stormvermin off-guard.

He kicked the left-side one in the face before turning back to the right-hand ratman and shoving his bronze sword into its throat. The Stormvermin choked and died.

Returning his attention to the last remaining ratman minion, Issei was surprised to see it running at him, a crazed look in its eyes. He blocked another swipe of its iron halberd with the copper sword. This proved too much for the blade, as it snapped in two. Issei didn't hesitate to throw the handle and what little remained of the blade still attached to it in the face of the Stormvermin, making it flinch long enough for him to repeat the death of its companion.

 **You have slain X6 Clanrats! You earn 360 EXP!**

 **You have slain X2 Stormvermin! You earn 240 EXP!**

 **Do you wish to loot the bodies? Y/N**

Hitting the 'Y' button, Issei grinned as the loot piled up.

 **Dirty Hemp Smock X6**

 **Copper Short Sword X6**

 **Copper Spaulders X6**

 **Copper Vambraces X6**

 **Leather Brigandine X6**

 **Dirty Leather Tunic X2**

 **Pig Iron Spaulders X2**

 **Pig Iron Vambraces X2**

 **Crude Pig Iron Cuirass X2**

 **Stormvermin Pig Iron Halberd X2**

 **¥4000**

Selling the Hemp Smocks and Leather Tunics for a profit of ¥102, the rest went to his inventory. Issei then strode up to the lever and pulled it down.

 **Ratman Minions Dispatched: 30/30**

"Right." he muttered as the lever clicked and was then retracted into the wall, "Now to find the boss' room."

It wasn't that hard at all; the pair of stupidly-large doors open at the end of the corridor that had swung open were a dead give away. Issei cautiously entered the room. It was full of straw dummies, human in shape, but with extra additions. Some had black bat-like wings on the back, while others had feathered wings of the feathered variety, coloured both black and white.

"Devil…Fallen Angel…Angel…" a snickering voice came from a shadowed area at the far side of the room. Issei peered forwards and managed to make out a figure sitting in a throne-like seat.

"These things?" Issei jerked his head at the dummies, "Are you telling me these guys _exist_?"

"Yes-yes, Man-thing…" the figure replied with another snicker, "Devil-things troublesome. Saving them for last. Fallen-things immoral and hide well. They'll be second last. Angel-things weakest of all. Destroy the Church-things and they're helpless."

"While hearing your plans is nice and all, we'd better get to the part where I kick your ass." Issei said challengingly.

The figure roared in laughter. "Kekekekekekekeke…foolish man-thing. You cannot defeat me, defeat Byral Warfang! Yes-yes…I shall enjoy your cries of pain…"

Bylan stood up and strode forward into the light, allowing Issei to gauge his enemy. Standing a head above even the Stormvermin, Byral Warfang cast an imposing figure for something that didn't even come up to Issei's chin. He wore a conical helm over his head, with a sheet of chain mail going down the back to protect his neck. His chest was protected by a steel cuirass, with pauldrons on his shoulders and a fauld going around his waist. Over his shoulders, a ragged brown cape fluttered.

With a sneer, the dungeon boss drew the sword at its hip. One side of it was straight, while the other half was curved like the waves. All of its equipment was steel, which meant trouble for Issei.

 **Byral Warfang LV6**

 **[Lesser Ratman Warlord]**

Great. Just great. Not only did the bastard have better equipment than he did, it was also a level higher than him. Perfect.

Issei readied his bronze sword and withdrew a copper sword from his inventory as well. He knew that if iron was a bad match up for his bronze and copper weapons, then steel was even worse for him. That sword would cut through them like a hot knife through butter.

' _Well then, I'll just have to avoid hitting his blade or armour._ ' Issei thought as he shifted his grip on his weapons, ' _This fight can't last long._ '

With a shrieking warcry, Byral leapt forwards, sword raised to strike. Issei sidestepped to the left and struck out with his blades, cutting a line across Byral's arm.

The warlord shrieked again and lashed out with his sword, forcing Issei to block with his copper blade. The steel ripped a chunk out of the blade, but it held…for now.

"Weak-weak!" the rat cackled.

The Sekiryūtei responded by kicking the rat where no man wishes to be kicked, making the ratman's already squeaky voice go up another octave. Issei would be surprised it that was the right note to shatter glass. He took the opportunity to try and cut the bastard's sword arm off, but the little git actually managed to block his bronze sword with his steel sword.

With a curse, Issei then stabbed awkwardly with his copper sword, managing to bury the blade into its leg. Sadly, the weapon snapped in half, leaving most of the blade embedded in the warlord's leg.

 **Byral Left Leg Crippled! -50% Mobility!**

 **Byral is suffering from the [Bleeding] status!**

"Hop along, rat boy!" Issei taunted the ratman as he fell back out of sword range, discarded his sword hilt and pulled another copper sword from his inventory.

"You dare mock me?!" Byral snarled, "You pay, Man-thing!"

He reached into a pouch at his waist, pulled out a small bottle and ripped the cap off. Issei wrinkled his nose at the foul smell that was emanating from the container.

"Witchbrew…drinking this will make me lose my mind…but I will kill you!" the warlord snarled before downing the container in one swallow. The effect was immediate. The eyes of the warlord turned bright red and his muscled bulged out.

"Oh hell." Issei muttered.

 **Byral has been affected by the status effects [Fury] and [Berserk]!**

"I figured that much out for myself!" Issei tsukkomi'd automatically.

When the ratman warlord roared, he decided that it was time to get serious.

"[Boosted Gear]!" Issei called out. On his command, the red gauntlet appeared on his left arm in a flash of red light.

 **[BOOST!]**

 **You have been affected by the [Boost!] status effect! Your power has been doubled!**

Right as it appeared, Bylan charged at Issei and slashed down with his blade. Issei deflected it with a backhanded swipe of his armoured hand and countered with a swipe with his bronze sword that clanged off the helmet that the ratman wore, which only seemed to piss it off even more.

Byral snarled and howled incomprehensively as he lashed out again and again with his sword, forcing Issei to block more with his own weapons and gauntlet.

 **[BOOST!]**

 **You have been affected by the [Boost!] status effect! Your power has been doubled!**

 **[Boost!] limit reached! Starting countdown.**

 **3:00...**

 **2:59...**

 **2:58...**

' _Craptastic! I'd better finish this now!_ ' he thought.

The problem was that the berserk Byral wasn't giving him much room to manoeuvre. He could barely attack without having to dodge that damned sword or the warlord's ravening maw.

Issei finally lured the warlord into a trap by letting him bit his armoured hand then stabbing him in the throat while he was trying to bite through Issei's Sacred Gear.

"Man…-thing…you…!" Byral choked out before slumping to the floor, dead.

"Thank god…!" Issei hastily disengaged the [Boosted Gear] before the timer could hit zero.

 **You have defeated Byral Warfang! You receive 600 EXP!**

 **Please select your drop from the boss:**

 **[Rapscallion Wave Blade] [?]**

 **[Helm of the Corsair] [?]**

 **[Mantle of the Rat Horde] [?]**

Issei looked at the selection with worried look on his face. His first instinct was to grab the sword, but…

He reached out and touched the question mark next to the sword.

 **[Rapscallion Wave Blade]**

 **This sword was the personal weapon of Byral Warfang. It was made by a captured dwarven smith, but from mediocre materials and with substandard equipment. Nevertheless, it is still a cut above the rest.**

 **Standard Sword (For Ratmen)**

 **Short Sword (Human)**

 **Slashing Attacks: S+20**

 **Piercing Attacks: S+18**

"Nice…let's see here…" he moved on to the next one.

 **[Helm of the Corsair]**

 **A helmet worn by sea raiders, it offers protection to the head, but leaves the nose and mouth area exposed. This helmet has been modified for extra protection for the eyes, at the cost of reducing visibility.**

 **Grants an Armour Rating of 15 to all covered locations and reduces visibility by 30%.**

"Nah, not my style. Next."

 **[Mantle of the Rat Horde]**

 **This ragged red cape is the indication of the rank of Captain or above in the Rat Hordes. To see an enemy wearing it makes other ratmen feel fear, knowing that the wearer has bested one of the more powerful members of their race.**

 **\- Non-Ratmen races wearing this cloak cause [Fear] in ratmen who are not captain-rank or above.**

"So the sword it is." Issei concluded. He selected the sword and the rest of the equipment, plus Byral's body, vanished. As he placed the sword into his inventory, a couple of screens popped up after that.

 **Congratulations!**

 **As a result of repeated actions, you have learned the skill [Short Sword Mastery]!**

 **[Short Sword Mastery] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Short Swords are typically less than 60 cm (two feet) long. Developed before forging techniques could be made to create longer weapons of sufficient strength to be used in battle. Famous examples include the Scottish Dirk, the Roman Gladius, the Greek Xiphos, the Italian Renaissance Cinquedea and the Cutlass. Conventional thinking would put the short sword at a disadvantage compared to longer blades, but a true master can still cause quite a bit of trouble with one.**

 **\- While wielding a [Short Sword], you are granted an additional +1 to all damage dealt.**

 **\- Additionally, you have a higher chance of learning skills to do with short swords.**

"Makes sense…I have been doing nothing but use these things all this time." Issei noted.

As a result of repeated actions, you have learned the Skill [Parry]!

 **[Parry] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Parrying is when you redirect or deflect an opponent's attack. In order to accomplish a classic parry, you must strike an attacking opponent's blade at the base, just above the crossguard and direct the blade away from you. Most people would refer to any kind of deflection during swordplay as a parry, which is true enough. However, you will receive extra EXP to any [Sword Mastery] skill or [Swordsmanship] skill you possess should you accomplish this.**

 **\- 20% chance to parry an opponent's attack.**

 **\- 5% chance of performing a classic parry.**

 **\- 5 MP per use.**

"Huh…I guess I _was_ batting that nutjob's attacks away quite a bit." the Sekiryūtei mused, "Well, better have a look around here before heading-"

He was cut off by the door slamming shut with a bang.

"-out." he finished lamely, "Well hell. Now I _have_ to find another way outta here. Jeez. It's just one thing after another with this [Gamer] business."

By and large, the room was barren of any traces of another exit. The only things remotely interesting were the mock-ups of the three supernatural races. It was when Issei investigated Byral's throne that he discovered something interesting. Next to it was a table with a map spread over it, one that showed a familiar town.

"This is…Kuō?" Issei whispered. His eyes danced over the paper, quickly finding where he thought the ratman nest he was currently in was located. It bore an odd mark, a rat's head. Scanning the map, he saw several other similar symbols dotted all over Kuō.

Deciding he'd need it later, Issei rolled the map up and stored it in his inventory before he examined the throne. It was a ramshackle affair, made of bits of wood knocked together with nails and covered with a mouldy red piece of velvet. Next to it was a lever.

Not having any other options, Issei pulled it.

With a great groan of turning gears, the wall behind the throne collapsed into the ground, revealing a dark passage.

"Here we go again." Issei sighed.

Having the presence of mind to grab a torch from one of the wall mountings, the brown-haired boy cautiously entered the dark passageway, only for the door to slam shut behind him, as he expected it to.

"Yep. Definitely RPG mechanics going on here." Issei muttered.

The passage wasn't very long, leading to a largish room with a desk, chair and light above it. On top of the desk was a single piece of paper. Curious, Issei investigated it.

" _To Division Head, Project Rat King,_

 _Central Command has given permission for you to carry out your plan. The bioengineered race you created, #456b (Ratmen), are weak, but pliable and should be useful for human wave tactics due to their large breeding pools and rapid maturation._

 _You are ordered to disperse the current specimens across several lairs in Kuō City so they can amass a large host each. Once this has been achieved, you shall receive further orders._

 _For the Purity of our species and our souls._ "

"What the hell is going on here?" Issei muttered. This certainly seemed like it came from the Purifiers, to judge by that last line. They were breeding an army of those ratmen? Why?

"I need to think about this."

With that muttered sentence, Issei placed the memo into his inventory and looked around for an exit. A set of concrete stairs looked like a likely bet.

As he headed up the stairs, the Sekiryūtei had to wonder what his life would turn into as he became more powerful.

He grinned. ' _I can't wait to find out._ '

Reaching a door with an empty mounting on the wall next to it, Issei slid the torch into it and twisted the handle on the door to open it. The daylight that shone through when the door creaked open was blinding after his time in the poorly lit lair of the ratmen.

A pleasant little jingle of music played as a screen appeared in front of him. It took him a moment to make it out due to his eyes being half-blind in their adjusting state.

 **[Quest Complete!]**

 **Defence for the Defenceless: Dungeoneering for Life!: You have successfully conquered your first dungeon!**

 **Quest Rewards: +400 EXP,** **¥3000, [Mental Mapping] Skill Book.**

 **You have levelled up! LV5-LV6!**

 **You have 5 Attribute points to spend.**

 **[Lesser-Draconic Charisma] has levelled up!**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up!**

"Whew…that's cool." Issei said as he looked around. He was in an abandoned warehouse of some sort. He returned his attention forwards as yet another window popped up.

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **Ratcatcher: You have discovered that the mysterious Purifier organisation has created an army of the demi-human ratmen through some unknown process. However they were created, they cannot be up to any good. Hunt down and conquer every ratman den, nest and lair in Kuō City.**

 **Bonus: Gather information about Project Rat King as you conquer each den.**

 **Quest Reward: +1000 EXP, +** **¥8000, +2 AP, Random Piece of Equipment, Title: Ratcatcher.**

 **Bonus Reward: [Sword Talent] Skill Book.**

 **Quest Failure: Death**

 **Accept?**

 **Y/** N

"Great, _another_ quest I could die performing." Issei muttered, "And, joy, I can't refuse it. I'm not doing it today though."

With that, he hit the 'Y' button and started heading home.

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 **Next Chapter: Ratting Out**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: OK, so people have been complaining that Tartarus and Gaia did not have an adversarial relationship. This opinion fails to take into account how screwed up the Greek Pantheon is. Ouranos was backstabbed by Gaia and his son Kronos. Kronos was in turn betrayed again by his own son Zeus and his mother, Gaia. The Earth Mother then took a snit with Zeus and created the Giants by joining with Tartarus. Who is to say that things didn't continue after that? Seriously, the interfamilial wars of the Greek Gods, Titans and Primordials makes the characters of a soap opera look mild by comparison, which takes some doing!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 3: Ratted Out**

 _That Night_

 _Entrance to the Ratman Den_

Rias Gremory wrinkled her nose as she stared at the opening in the wall that was hidden by a basic glamour. She and the rest of her Peerage were clustered around the doorway.

"Koneko-chan, can you sense anything in there?" she asked her [Rook]. The reincarnated Nekomata paused for a moment before shaking her head.

"Nothing alive." she said bluntly.

This made the Gremory Heiress frown. She had detected unusual magical emanations coming from this location earlier on today and she'd come here hoping to find a new Sacred Gear wielder or something, not a doorway that shouldn't be there.

"Kiba, take the lead." she directed her [Knight], "Akeno and I will follow, with Koneko taking the rear."

"Hai, Buchou." the blond boy nodded. He concentrated and a Demonic Sword erupted from the ground in front of him. He drew it and led the way through the doorway.

The group of Devils assembled at the bottom of the stairs and stared silently at the skeleton draped over the chest in horror.

"There are teeth-marks on the bones." Kiba said in a subdued voice, "Something… _ate_ this man alive."

"Such a thing…" Rias shook her head with a shudder, "Be careful. Whoever or _whatever_ did this may still be around."

As they started to explore the underground maze, it was with shock that they discovered the corpse of the first Ratman not far away from the entry area. Kiba, despite his distaste for the smell of the thing, examined the body.

"No supernatural race that I've ever seen." he said with a frown, "Someone killed this… _thing_ …with a rather clumsy sword thrust to the chest. After cutting off its tail."

The further in they went, the more corpses they found. Kiba looked puzzled at one point, when they discovered eight ratmen slain in close proximity to one another.

"Whoever did this got verifiably better since the last lot." he said with a frown, "Before this group, the swordplay, judging by the cuts and other wounds, shows that it was an amateur who killed them. This group were killed by someone who was familiar and comfortable with the sword. Still not very skilled, but marginally more so than before."

"Who could change from unskilled to marginally skilled between groups?" Akeno wondered.

"A robot?" Koneko deadpanned.

Rias chuckled as she beckoned her group onwards. Finally, the only area they hadn't checked yet was hidden behind a set of heavy stone doors.

"Koneko-chan, if you would?" Rias directed her [Rook].

The petite girl walked forward and, quite nonchalantly, kicked the doors in, the great stone blocks crumbling down, forming a no less impassable barrier in the form of a heap. Akeno used her magic to remove the stone so they could advance into the room.

Inside, the corpse of the largest ratman the group had found yet lay in the middle of the room, the remains of half a copper sword still embedded in its leg.

"Copper? Really?" Kiba shook his head in disbelief, "Who on earth uses _copper_ for swords anymore?"

"Is it magical?" Akeno asked.

"Nope. Just an ordinary copper sword." Kiba replied, utterly mystified, "Aside from the fact someone, probably this creature here, hit it hard enough to break it in two."

"Buchou, these mannequins…" Koneko pointed at the faux Fallen, Angels and Devils scattered around the room.

"Yes…this is…unusual." the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess nodded slowly, "Akeno, take this…ratman, I suppose we should call it…to Beelzebub-sama's local research department drop-off centre. The fact that these things were able to set up a nest in my territory without us catching so much as a hint of it is worrisome."

' _Almost as worrisome as someone taking it upon themselves to massacre them in their own nest._ ' she added silently.

As Akeno vanished in a magic circle, taking the corpse away with her, Rias examined the mannequins with a frown. They were disgusting, filthy mockeries of the real McCoy that gave her chills up her spine for some reason.

When Akeno reappeared, Rias looked around at her beloved Peerage with a smile.

"Well, that's everything we needed to do here." she said, "Let's leave this place and seal up the entrance."

"Rias, should we keep an eye out for the magic user who did…this." Akeno asked, gesturing at the slaughtered ratmen as they walked back out of the large chamber.

"Yes…I want to have a word with them about exactly what these things are doing in my territory. _And_ why they didn't contact me before entering my territory to deal with them." the Gremory Heiress answered with a hint of irritation in her voice.

Kuō was _her_ territory, _her_ responsibility. Whoever had killed these ratmen had snuck in and acted as they pleased without so much as a by-your-leave. Rias couldn't allow anyone, Yōkai, Devil or otherwise, to flaunt her authority like this.

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 _The Next Day_

 _With Issei_

With a yawn, Issei padded down the stairs of his family home. He was still tired after he took down that ratman den the previous day, even although he had gotten plenty of sleep. Odd.

Floating above his bed had been a screen telling him that his HP and MP had been restored for sleeping in a proper bed, which was useful information.

"Morning, Kaa-san." he greeted his mother as he entered the kitchen.

"Good morning, Issei." his mother replied as she dished up breakfast.

"Where's Otou-san?" he asked as he sat down at his seat.

"He got called in to work early." his mother replied with a sigh, "Apparently there's a flu going around and a lot of people in his office have caught it, so he's going to be working overtime until everyone's well again."

"Poor dad." Issei commented as he tucked in.

As he ate, Issei snuck a look at the words floating over his mother's head.

 **Hyōdō Yukariko LV10**

 **[Housewife]**

So his mother was four Levels higher than he was. Considering she was an adult, that seemed a bit low, but then again, she didn't kill monsters for large whacks of EXP, so maybe it was average.

Whatever the case may be, he had to get stronger in order to better protect his family from the Purifiers…whoever they were.

The fact that he was legitimately under threat of being murdered by a secret organisation that seemed to have a chip on their shoulders regarding supernaturals was like something out of a manga. Issei wished it wasn't the case, but what could he do?

After finishing his breakfast, Issei headed back up to his room and opened his Status Screen.

 **Name: Hyōdō Issei**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 6| Next Level: 2000 EXP**

 **Title: Oppai Baka**

 **HP: 300/300**

 **MP: 125/125**

 **STR: 35**

 **STA: 31**

 **DEX: 36**

 **INT: 9**

 **WIS: 9**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: 11**

 **Attribute Points: 5**

 **¥: 14712**

Issei blinked at the state of his STR, STA and DEX, but then remembered his trait as an **[Awakened Sekiryūtei]** , which added ten points to those three stats every time he levelled up, and he had levelled up _twice_ yesterday. **[Lesser Draconic Charisma]** accounted for the increase in his CHA score for similar reasons.

Deciding that he could afford to spend the points on his mental stats now, he put two into INT, two into WIS and then tried to put the last point into CHA, which he presumed stood for charisma, but a screen popped up when he tried.

 **[Charisma can only be raised either by undertaking quests that specifically raise charisma as a reward or by skills.]**

Very irritating. He flipped a coin and put the last point into WIS. Issei then checked the two skills that levelled up yesterday, **[Lesser Draconic Charisma]** and **[Basic Swordsmanship]**.

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] (Passive) [LV2, 31.01EXP)**

 **Dragons are massive creatures, able to do a great many things, one of them being transformation into other beings. But regardless of what form they take, all dragons have a natural air of charisma about them that draws people to them. As someone who bears a Dragon-type Sacred Gear, you have inherited a small portion of this charisma.**

 **\- Grants you the Charisma stat once this entry has been read.**

 **\- Automatically adds 6 Charisma each level.**

 **\- As one who bears the [Boosted Gear], you gain a 50% EXP boost with this skill as this is a [Draconic] skill.**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] (Passive) [LV2, 01.25]**

 **Throughout the entirety of the world, the one weapon that is used the most often, barring the human body itself, is the sword. No matter what kind of sword it is, from Rapiers to Broadswords, from Dao to Katana, the sword has rightly earned its name as the Queen of Weapons throughout humanity's long and bloody history. Basic Swordsmanship is, as the title suggests, very basic thrusts and cuts.**

 **\- Grants the user the ability to carry a sword with ease.**

 **\- Passively grants the user +2 to [Slashing] Attacks.**

 **\- Passively grants the user +1 to [Piercing] Attacks.**

Not a large improvement, but still better than nothing.

Reaching into his inventory, Issei pulled out the skill book he received for completing the main quest yesterday.

 **[You have received the 'Mental Mapping' skill book]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Y/N**

"What the heck is Mental Mapping?" Issei wondered. As he'd expected, a window popped up.

 **[Mental Mapping is the ability to create a map in the mind of the user of every location that they have been to.]**

"Huh…sounds useful." He said with a shrug, "Let's go for it."

Pressing the 'Y' button, he saw the book dissolve into blue light, which flew into his chest. A moment later, a screen popped up.

 **You have learned the skill [Mental Mapping]!**

 **[Mental Mapping] (Passive/Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **Mental Mapping is a skill that allows the user to create a map in their mind of any location they enter. At low levels, it is restricted to buildings and dungeons, but once you reach higher levels, it can and will function in the outdoors as well.**

 **\- Actively allows the creation of mental maps of locations.**

 **\- Passively increases WIS by 5.**

 **\- Costs 5MP per minute to use.**

 **\- Passively allows the user to recall any map created in exacting detail.**

"Cool." Issei said before he noticed another window appear.

 **[Do you wish [Mental Mapping] to scan your memory for any locations that it can create maps for you?]**

 **[Warning: Costs 50 MP]**

 **Y/N**

The Sekiryūtei cocked one eyebrow. It could do that? If it could, then it'd save him an awful lot of time walking all over places he already knew like the back of his hand to get a mental map. He hit 'Y' at once.

 **[Working…**

… **working…**

… **working…**

… **Done!]**

 **Map: Hyōdō Residence: Fully Complete!**

 **Map: Kuō Academy (Main Building): 45% Complete!**

 **Map: Kuō Academy Kendo Club Hall: 60% Complete!**

 **Map: Kuō City Indoor Shopping Arcade: 70% Complete!**

 **Map: Motohama Residence: Fully Complete!**

 **Map: Matsuda Residence: Fully Complete!**

 **Map: Den of the Ratlord: Fully Complete!**

 **You gain 50 EXP per completed map!**

"Nice!" Issei grinned. An extra 200 EXP wasn't something to sneeze at.

Question was, what to do now? He had no idea. Check the map for the nearest rat den?

Shrugging again, he reached into his still open inventory and pulled out the map of Kuō he had taken from the secret room at the back of the dungeon the previous day and opened it out. It took Issei a moment to find the rough location of his house on the map.

"Ok, so my house is _here_ …" he muttered, "The den was a fifteen-minute walk away…ah, this one over _here_ …hello, what's this then?"

Next to the rat's head symbol was a set of odd lines. **'VII'**

"The roman numerals for seven?" he said in bafflement. He only knew about that because he had played _Final Fantasy VII_ a few times. Who was it that said that playing video games never taught you anything again?

Examining the other rat's heads, Issei noticed that they all had numerals of some sort next to them. None of which were higher than seven. A hint to go after the nests in descending numerical order, perhaps?

 **You gain +1 INT for correct deductive reasoning!**

Shush!

Deciding that it was as good an idea as any to start off with, Issei searched and found the den with the number six next to it. It was, oddly enough, on the riverbank, near the bridge.

"Time to have a walk." he muttered.

Issei got dressed, in casual clothes this time, although they honestly weren't too different from his school uniform; black trousers, a red t-shirt, white running shoes and a white shirt over the top to finish the look.

"Kaa-san, I'm going out for a walk!" he called as he came down the stairs.

"Another one?" his mother asked as she came into the hallway, "What's brought this on?"

"I'm still a bit nervous…you know…after what happened." Issei replied awkwardly. It was true, up to a point anyway.

His mother's eyes softened as she drew Issei into a gentle hug. "Oh, now Issei. You should have told me you were feeling uneasy about this whole thing. I am sorry it happened but hopefully it'll never happen again."

 **You gain +100 Relationship with Hyōdō Yukariko!**

His mother sent him on his way with a wave and an admonishment to be back in time for lunch.

As he closed the door behind him, Issei found himself confronted by a large screen.

 **[Do you wish to be directed to one of the Ratman Dens?]**

 **[If so, kindly indicate which den you would like to go to.]**

 **\- Den I**

 **\- Den II**

 **\- Den III**

 **\- Den IV**

 **\- Den V**

 **\- Den VI**

 **\- No**

"This is convenient." Issei remarked as he hit the button for Den number six and saw the blue path light up and head down the street.

Walking along, Issei had to wonder what he would find at the rest of the Dens. More powerful versions of the last opponents? Magic users? Giant rat monsters? He wasn't all that up on what ratmen members were available in fantasy games beyond the low level trash-mobs. He'd have to do some research to combat that lack of knowledge.

At length, he reached the riverbank, but frowned as the path still went on, under the bridge even. Issei trotted over to the concrete and found, as expected, a blue screen over a door shaped section of concrete. He reached out and touched it, making it flare to life.

 **[Warning!]**

 **You are about to enter the dungeon [Lair of the Rat Beast] (LV6)**

 **Once you enter this dungeon, you must clear it before exiting.**

 **Do you wish to enter?**

 **Y/N**

"Great, a rat beast this time." Issei grumbled, "Kami help me."

He pressed the 'Y' button and the door vanished just like at the last place. What was different about this entrance was what lay on the other side of the door; a long pole descending down into the darkness.

Seeing what he was supposed to do here, Issei sighed and did it. He jumped onto the pole and started to slide down it. It was only a couple of minutes later that he touched down on the ground, in a circular room built of stone, lit by braziers and with a single doorway leading on.

Drawing the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] from his inventory, Issei advanced through the doorway, only to be confronted by a familiar sight…a skeleton leaning over a chest.

"OK…let's see what we have here." he muttered as he opened the chest.

Folded up neatly in the chest was a pile of red cloth. When Issei picked it up and unfolded it, the cloth was revealed to be a ragged hooded cloak, with a blank circular buckle at the throat.

 **You have acquired the [Cloak of Obfuscation]!**

 **Do you wish to equip this item? Y/N**

Hitting yes, he opened his equipment menu so he could get a description of the cloak.

 **[Cloak of Obfuscation]**

 **A cloak made from the woven hairs of several magical beasts that use chameleon-like abilities to hunt. It makes the wearer very hard to notice to mundane methods and even provides some degree of camouflage to supernatural detection methods, but it isn't absolute.**

 **\- Provides 5 armour to all covered locations.**

 **\- While the hood is up, grants the skills [Mundane Detection Nullity] and [Magical Detection Resistance] to the user.**

 **\- While the hood is up, the wearer's face is obscured into darkness.**

 **\- Combat impossible while concealed with this item.**

"Whew…useful." Issei whistled. He pulled the hood up and immediately noticed that his body seemed to be drained of colour, to the point that he looked transparent.

Moving through the next room, Issei spotted what had to be the largest mass of enemies he had ever seen. They were a bunch of rats the size of spaniels, with red eyes, frothing mouths and whip-like tails. At the back stood a ratman armed with a whip and a crude-looking dagger thrust into its belt.

 **Giant Rat LV5**

 **Packmaster LV5**

 **[Spawn Eater]**

' _Shit, there's over twenty of those rat-dog things!_ ' Issei cursed. He reached into his inventory and took out his bronze sword. Against the sheer number of enemies he was facing, he couldn't just charge in and cut them to pieces as he would prefer to do, as one thing rats and ratmen had very commonly was a debuff effect attached to their fangs or claws, usually poison.

So then, he would have to be cunning.

He observed the movements of the rat pack, which seemed to involve the dog-sized rats seething and running about within a certain area, which was about the length of the Packmaster's whip. None of the rats seemed to want to get behind the Packmaster either. If he could sneak around, disengage his camouflage, kill the Packmaster and then retreat, it could make the rats scatter and become easier targets.

Alternatively, it could make them swarm him, but he didn't have a clue what else to do other than a frontal assault. So he went with his plan, but noted the need to develop long-ranged skills at some point.

Carefully manoeuvring himself as quietly as possible around the horde of rats, Issei barely managed to avoid standing on one rat's tail before finally getting to the back of the Packmaster. Releasing a sigh of relief, he considered how best to do this before reaching up with his bronze sword and flicking the hood off his head.

Almost immediately, a rat-dog spotted him and opened its mouth to shriek, but Issei cut the head off the Packmaster with one clean cut of his steel sword before it could so much as twitch.

The effect on the pack was rather interesting; they scattered and fled into cracks in the wall that he didn't think rats of their size should be able to squeeze through.

 **You have slain a Packmaster! You earn 75 EXP!**

 **By assassinating the Packmaster, you have scattered a pack of Giant Rats! You earn 100 EXP!**

When the option whether or not to loot the body came up, Issei hit the 'Y' key.

 **\- Filthy Robe X1**

 **\- Ragged Whip X1**

 **\- Crude Iron Knife X1**

 **\- ¥500**

He sold the whip and robe (¥100 each), but kept the dagger, as it was a damn better one than the flint crap he had in his inventory.

Considering the fact that no special clearing conditions had appeared, Issei took it to mean that it was a very basic kill-the-boss type dungeon as he wandered down the corridor. Quite why this hadn't been the case for the last dungeon was a bit confusing, but he guessed it was generated at random by his [Gamer] ability.

On his way down the corridor, Issei had to deal with two more packs of Giant Rats. The first he dealt with in a similar way to the initial pack and netting similar rewards.

The second, however, was a pain in the backside. The ratman standing behind the pack had some kind of glowing crystal in place of one of its eyes and spotted him even with the hood of his cloak up.

"Man-Thing! Kill-Kill!" it squeaked before lashing out with its whip, egging its charges on to attack Issei.

"Crap on a stick!" Issei cursed as he flipped his hood down and readied his swords as the wave of dog-sized rats descended upon him. He bisected the first one to reach him before he had to leap back to avoid the ravening maw of another one.

The next few minutes were tense as Issei cut a swath through the rats. Individually, they weren't close to being a match for him. As they came at him in a large mob, however, he had accumulated a small number of cuts and a bite mark, losing fifty HP altogether.

"OW!" he shouted in pain as yet another rat bit him on his right arm, "Gerroff!"

 **-35 HP!**

Issei stabbed the rat with his bronze sword several times before it died and released his arm. He made short work of the remaining three Giant Rats before turning his attention to the Packmaster, who backed off nervously, whip held at the ready.

"Die-Die!" it shrieked before drawing the whip back in preparation to strike. Issei leapt in close and severed the hand holding the weapon, making the Packmaster let out a shrill screech of pain.

Dispassionately, Issei finished the ratman off with a thrust to the chest.

 **You have slain X20 Giant Rats! You earn 400 EXP!**

 **You have slain a Packmaster! You earn 75 EXP!**

 **Do you wish to loot the bodies? Y/N**

Impatiently, Issei hit yes.

 **\- Giant Rat Teeth X15**

 **\- Ragged Giant Rat Pelt X10**

 **\- Giant Rat Pelt X5**

 **\- Unknown Magical Device (False Eye) X1**

 **\- Enchanted Whip (Unknown Enchantment) X1**

 **\- Ragged Robe X1**

 **\- Crude Iron Dagger X1**

 **\- ¥1000**

Marking the robe for disposal (¥100), Issei kept everything else. He wondered what he was going to do with all of the crap he had in his inventory? He'd checked the previous night and all of the armour, including the helmets, were too small for him. The flint knives were tiny little things the length of his pinkie and were almost all chipped and ready to break. The only usable spoils were the copper swords.

Shrugging again, Issei pulled his hood up and advanced down the corridor again. At the end of the corridor was a large circular room with three doors leading in different directions. A screen popped up.

 **[Choose a door to advance]**

"That's all the clues I'm getting?" Issei complained. He examined the doors for any hints. Nope. Three plain doors with three identical levers next to them, no hint as to what was behind them.

"OK, I'll just pick at random then." he stated. Selecting the one on the right, he pulled the lever down, triggering the clanking of gears as the door sank down.

A loud roar emerged from behind it and Issei leapt back, holding his swords at the ready. What emerged from the tunnel made his jaw drop.

It was a massive rat, far larger than Byral Warfang had been. Hell, it towered two feet over Issei's head! Large muscle rippled across its chest and arms, the massive head twitched and jerked spasmodically as the glowing red eyes locked onto Issei. Two large clawed arms dragged along the ground as it thumped out of what Issei could see was a holding cell. Attached to the monster's back was an odd machine that glowed green and had several tubes and wires leading into the flesh of the monster. Drool fell from the gaping fanged maw of the ogre as it breathed.

 **Rat Ogre LV6**

 **[Mad Beast]**

"Hell." Issei cursed mildly as his **[Gamer's Mind]** kicked in and calmed him down from his rising panic.

With another loud roar, the Rat Ogre leapt at Issei with both arms extended, attempting to grab him. With a curse, Issei leapt to the side and lashed out with his bronze sword at the arm of the Rat Ogre. It bounced off the skin of the monster like it was steel.

"Bloody _bastard_ hell!" he cursed before dodging another swipe of a clawed paw. Those claws were the same size as carving knives and looked just as sharp, if not sharper.

This time he attacked with the steel sword he had taken from Byral, scoring a hit down the monster's right underarm. Then, to Issei's surprise, it just regenerated the wound in seconds.

"…you have got to be freaking kidding me!" Issei yelped as he dodged another clumsy swipe from the Rat Ogre, "It's strong, fast AND it regenerates?! C'mon, gimme a break here!"

An idea came to mind. Issei returned the bronze sword to his inventory and drew out one of the Iron Daggers he had taken from the Packmasters. He held it clumsily and threw the knife at the Rat Ogre's face, scoring a hit just below the eye that made the monster recoil and cover its face with one massive paw.

Quickly, Issei ran around to the back of the Ogre, leapt into the air, drew back his sword and brought it smashing down on the machinery attached to its back with a yell. The steel blade cleaved the machinery in half and set off an explosion that sent Issei flying back into a wall.

 **-60 HP!**

 **You have crippled the Rat Ogre! -70% Movement!**

"Ow…!" Issei moaned as he shook his head to clear it. The Rat Ogre was slumped over, twitching, where it had fallen. The arcane device on its back was a melted hunk of melted scrap metal and plastic tubing.

Staggering to his feet, Issei walked over to it and looked down at the struggling monster before raising his blade and ending it by decapitation.

 **You have slain a Rat Ogre! You gain 380 EXP!**

Issei cocked an eyebrow when no offer to loot came up. After recovering the dagger and stowing it in his inventory, he peered back into the Rat Ogre's former cage and spotted a chest, similar to the one at the entryway. Opening it, he beheld a circular item that looked suspiciously like it should fit the clasp of his cloak. He picked it up and placed it into the slot, making a screen pop up.

 **[Do you wish to add the [Eye of Obscurity] to the [Cloak of Obfuscation]?]**

 **Y/N**

"What does it do?" Issei asked plaintively.

 **[A part of the Unknown Set. Adds the ability to muffle sound to the cloak. (Does not include voice)]**

"Better." Issei said with a nod as he hit the 'Y' key.

 **Effect added to [Cloak of Obfuscation]!**

 **\- Suppresses all sound from the user by 50%. (User voice exempted).**

"Useful."

With that, Issei turned to the other two doors. He did not want to have to fight another Rat Ogre, even although he now knew how to fight the bastards. He was down by 145 HP as it was. He had to be careful as he only had 155 left!

"Let's see here…" Issei looked between the door on the left and the middle door, "The obvious location for a door to go onwards is the middle one, which is a clue that it isn't the way. So, left it is."

Thankfully, as the left-hand door clanked open, there was a conspicuous lack of Rat Ogre behind it, much to Issei's relief. He pulled his hood up and ran down the corridor, which was weird because his footsteps made no sound whatsoever. Talk about freaky.

Issei slowed down when the stone bricks around him turned into rock abruptly. This was obviously an older part of the dungeon.

Looking around, Issei spotted two more chests, on either side of a large stone door with the face of a large horned rat carved into it. Moving to the chest on the right, he opened it to find a plain steel short sword, basically the same design as his bronze sword. Hastily equipping it, he pulled up its stats.

 **[Steel Short Sword]**

 **A short sword forged from steel. It bears no makers mark, but is in excellent condition.**

 **Short Sword**

 **Slashing Damage: S+18**

 **Piercing Damage: S+14**

Rather pleased with this prize, Issei moved onto the last chest. Opening it, he blinked as a pair of arm bracers, made of some kind of red metal, appeared.

Equipping them, he once again accessed his equipment screen in order to find out what it did.

 **[Bloodmetal Bracers]**

 **Light armour made from Bloodmetal, the name given to steel that has been anointed with willingly gifted dragon blood and enchanted by a powerful magician. It offers decent protection for the forearms, but its true value comes from the effect it has on draconic abilities.**

 **Light Armour**

 **\- Grants 15 Armour to covered locations.**

 **\- All [Draconic] skills gain +5 to their effects and gain 25% more experience while these bracers are worn.**

"Nice!" Issei grinned, before a frown came upon him. If he was getting not one, but two cool pieces of equipment, that almost _had_ to mean that the boss was behind that door. There was no such thing as a freebie in a dungeon, after all.

Drawing both of his swords, he approached the door cautiously and examined it for a way to open it. Seeing that there was a raised button in the centre of the muzzle, he pushed it with the butt of his sword until he heard a 'click' sound.

Issei jumped back as the entire carving of the horned rat leapt free of the door and spun around once, twice and thrice before sinking back into the door. The eyes glowed a crimson red before the door sunk into the ground.

"Ominous…" Issei muttered as he advanced into the room beyond the doorway, which made him gape as he caught the whole scope of it.

It was a goddamn mini arena, with numerous tattered banners hanging around the seats that surrounded the arena floor…where Issei was standing.

"Oh crap." he sighed as a high-pitched cackle arose from the large box at the opposite side of the arena from where Issei stood. Standing in it was the fattest ratman he had ever seen. It had a potbelly that made it look as if it was heavily and obesely pregnant. It also had four arms, both carrying whips, with the original two grasping the small barrier in front of it.

"Welcome, man-thing, to my arena!" it squeaked at him in a high-pitched voice at odds with its size, "Your death here will mean plenty of tasty data! AND your corpse will be an interesting dissection!"

 **Farsqueaker, the Grand Packmaster LV8**

 **[Insane Genius/Cruel Experimenter]**

"You can talk tough, just like Byral Warfang did." Issei remarked, "Can you match it though? He couldn't."

"Fool-fool!" jeered Farsqueaker, "Unlike that incompetent fool Byral, _I_ take the leader's position in the rear! Face my pets!"

One hand reached out and pulled a lever hidden from Issei's sight, which made several pits open up in the floor even as elevators clanked their way to the top, revealing _three_ Rat Ogres, each as large as the one he had defeated previously, roaring in bestial rage and smacking their talons against the cages that held them captive.

As Farsqueaker pulled yet another lever to release the monstrous trio, Issei was planning what to do. He had to destroy the machines that the three Rat Ogres had attached to their backs; otherwise they'd just regenerate all of his attacks. Problem was, he only had three daggers that he _knew_ could pierce the thick hides of the Rat Ogres. After he had thrown those at the beasts, he was down to the flint daggers that could barely cut damp paper.

Ironically, he had at least ten of them, so they were a lot more expendable thanks to those two factors.

"Kill-kill!" the fat rat shrieked at his pets. They roared again and started stomping over to Issei.

' _Why do these ratmen always have to repeat words?_ ' Issei wondered absently as he flopped his hood down and took up a stance with his swords.

As the lead Rat Ogre leapt at him, Issei dodged to the side and slashed with both swords at the trailing arm, making a large wound that spat black blood out in a broad spray. Using the time that the monster took to howl in pain, Issei ghosted around its sides and smashed the machine on its back, jumping back immediately so that the explosion didn't knock him on his ass like it had the first time.

 **You have crippled the Rat Ogre! -70% Movement!**

Instead of immediately finishing off the downed monster, Issei turned around to face the other two, who were now regarding him with something approaching wariness in their bestial eyes as they approached him. It would be tougher now because he had been moved from 'weak prey' to 'prey that has a strong bite' in their minds.

After enduring a staring contest for a couple of minutes, Issei decided to see how these things handled being on the receiving end for a change. He charged at the one on his right.

It roared and lashed out with its claws in an attempt to eviscerate him, but he was able to dodge most of them and block with the bracers that which he couldn't avoid. Sadly, it still managed to get through somehow and made him lose HP.

 **-45 HP!**

Shit. That was him down to 110 HP now!

He lashed out with one sword and scored a cut down the Rat Ogre's flank, eliciting yet another ear-piercing shriek from the monstrosity. Issei dealt the crippling blow to the monster and it collapsed to the ground, leaving the last Rat Ogre to face him.

As expected, it decided to act exactly as its two comrades had and attacked with its claws and gaping maw, allowing Issei to cripple it in much the same way as he had the three previous Rat Ogres. He then killed the monsters by decapitating them.

 **You have slain a Rat Ogre! You gain 380 EXP!**

 **You have slain a Rat Ogre! You gain 380 EXP!**

 **You have levelled up! LV6-LV7!**

 **You have 5 Attribute Points to spend.**

 **[Short Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **You have slain a Rat Ogre! You gain 380 EXP!**

"NO!" Farsqueaker screamed in denial as it stared down at the rapidly cooling corpses of its so-called 'pets,' "No! My best little pets!"

"Those are your best?" Issei called up at him, resting his blades on his shoulders comfortably, "Better see if you can do any better, eh?"

"You…!" Farsqueaker growled, "I will show you why _no one_ mocks me!"

The ratman pulled yet another lever, which made him vanish from sight. Issei looked around nervously until he spotted a larger elevator being moved up on the other side of the arena.

"Oh _c'mon_! Not the old 'monster-from-the-floor' routine!" he groaned, "What now?!"

What emerged, seemingly in response to his question, was a Rat Ogre that made the four Issei had faced up till this point look like underfed runts by comparison. It was at least half again the height of the last one and the same wide. The muscles on the thing bulged like melons and one of the arms had been crudely replaced with a large lump of steel with one side sharpened into a blade. The head was grotesque, half of the skin and muscle were hanging off it, but the teeth inside the maw looked as sharp as swords and were the same size as daggers. Sitting atop it in a saddle/harness contraption was Farsqueaker, looking very smug.

 **Boneripper LV8**

 **[Specimen 5584v1.0]**

"Behold! My greatest creation…Boneripper!" the fat ratman declared squeakily, "He shall tear you to pieces! Die-Die!"

"This…might be somewhat troublesome." Issei admitted nervously.

"Boneripper! Attack!" Farsqueaker ordered, his whips lashing out to strike the Rat Ogre on its rear. With a bass growl, Boneripper started forwards.

"Crap." Issei muttered as he backed off. What to do? He squinted at the monster before he realised that it didn't have one of those machines embedded in its back. Could it not regenerate then?

' _Only one way to find out._ ' he thought as he drew out one of the iron daggers and threw it at the encroaching Boneripper, embedding itself in the Super Rat Ogre's shoulder, making it roar in anger.

"Man-Thing, you'll have to do better than that!" Farsqueaker jeered, before he squeaked in pain as a flint dagger hit his muzzle, making it bleed.

"Looks like I just did!" Issei shouted defiantly as he threw another flint knife at the fat ratman.

"Boneripper! What are you dawdling around for!? **Kill him!** " Farsqueaker snarled in a rage after the Man-Thing, fortunately missed him this time.

Issei hurriedly redrew his steel short sword as the massive Rat Ogre drew closer. He dodged to the side as Farsqueaker lashed out with a whip, then he had to dodge again when Boneripper lashed out with its clawed paw, gouging a line of rock from the floor when it missed.

Issei counterattacked with several cuts from his swords on the arm that had just missed him before leaping back again to avoid another swipe from the sword-sized claws.

The Sekiryūtei grimaced as he saw that the black blood from the Rat Ogre was hissing as it hit the rock. Was it acidic enough to eat through _rock_? What about steel? He glanced at his swords and was relieved to see that there was no hissing going on there.

"Boneripper! KILL-KILL!" Farsqueaker roared as he attacked with his whips. Issei dodged one and cut the other down to size.

Boneripper roared, raised its massive blade arm and brought it down, aimed right at Issei. He leapt back, but the displaced air of the swipe sent him flying back.

 **-20 HP!**

 **Warning! You have less than a hundred HP!**

"OW! Dammit!" Issei cursed as he leapt to his feet again, "Heh…looks like you're in a bit of a pickle there."

Indeed, Boneripper's attack with its blade arm was so strong that it had gotten stuck in the rocky floor, much to the befuddlement of the dim-witted monster.

"Boneripper! Pull your arm-OW!" Farsqueaker snarled, and then yelped as another flint dagger landed accurately on his muzzle.

Issei charged in to take advantage of Boneripper's immobilisation. He hacked and slashed across its back and even cut off the beast's tail, which made a screen pop up.

 **You have cut off one of Boneripper's limbs! You have inflicted the [Bleeding] status on Boneripper!**

With a roar of pain, Boneripper finally ripped its blade arm from the arena floor and whirled to face Issei with a growl.

' _Crap. Looks like it's time to get serious._ ' Issei thought and called out, " **[Boosted Gear]!** "

 **[Boost!]**

 **You have been affected by the status effect [Boost!]! Your power has been doubled!**

The red fingerless gauntlet materialised and glowed red with power. Issei felt this boost more than the first two times he'd used the **[Boosted Gear]**. It was probably because he had far more impressive stats to double this time around. He mentally added actual jogging and weight lifting to his training schedule.

With a roar, Boneripper slashed at Issei with its blade arm. Issei ducked under it and struck at the part of its arm where the blade was connected to the stump of its shoulder with both swords in a scissor cut motion. His blades bit deep into the flesh, but Issei was forced to halt his attack prematurely in order to dodge the monster's teeth as it tried to bite him in half.

Farsqueaker lashed out with its only remaining whip, but Issei shouted, " **[Parry]!** " and deflected it, although it wasn't a classic parry. He then lashed out with his other sword and sliced the whip in half, leaving Farsqueaker all but defenceless.

Issei ran around the monster and cut several times with his swords, hoping to enrage the Rat Ogre to the point that it would use its massive blade-arm again. And, as expected, Boneripper roared and raised its blade-arm, bringing it down at Issei, who had already leapt back and driven his swords into the ground to not fly off like the last time.

"Boneripper! Fool-fool!" Farsqueaker raged impotently.

Issei took the chance offered and started hacking at the stuck arm with his swords, finally cutting it off in a geyser of black blood and a roar of pain and fury from Boneripper.

 **You have cut off one of Boneripper's limbs! You have increased the [Bleeding] Status to [Heavy Bleeding]!**

Issei backed off so he could give Boneripper a once over. The monster's tail and left arm were severed, disgorging gouts of blood that was pooling around its clawed feet. The Rat Ogre was breathing heavily and was probably going into shock due to the damage Issei had inflicted and the amount of blood it had lost.

 **[Boost!]**

 **You have been affected by the status effect [Boost!]! Your power has been doubled!**

 **[Boost!] Limit Reached! Starting Countdown.**

 **3:00...**

 **2:59...**

 **2:58...**

"Farsqueaker! It's time to finish this!" Issei yelled once he saw the timer. He charged at Boneripper, who raiser its only remaining hand sluggishly to strike at the pesky enemy that was killing him.

The Sekiryūtei dodged the clumsy and slow attack, spinning around to drive both of his blades into the gut of the Rat Ogre, dragging them through its body before ripping them out, and disembowelling the monster in an explosion of blood.

 **You have fatally wounded Boneripper! He will die in 5:00!**

With a choking growl, its clawed paw futilely trying to keep its guts from spilling out, Boneripper collapsed onto its knees before it slammed face first onto the arena floor with a thump, spilling Farsqueaker from his perch and sending him sprawling to the floor.

"NO! Boneripper!" the fat ratman yelled in disbelief.

Issei didn't waste any more time with Boneripper and charged at Farsqueaker. The ratman came to his senses when he spotted Issei and he lashed out with what remained of his whips, but to no avail as the Sekiryūtei cut through them.

"NO! This cannot happen!" Farsqueaker shrieked in terror as he cast away his whips and drew out a steel dagger with each of his arms before attacking rabidly with them, forcing Issei onto the defensive from the ferocity of the ratman's attack.

"What's wrong? I thought you were better than Byral?" Issei taunted him as the Sekiryūtei dodged another frantic swipe of a blade, "You don't look so good by the way. Not been getting enough exercise?"

It was true. Farsqueaker was panting like a steam engine at full tilt after just a minute or so of combat. Even Issei had been better than that at first.

"SILENCE!" the ratman shrieked, "Die-die-die-die-die-die-die-die-die!"

"You first!" Issei grunted as he kicked Farsqueaker in his rotund belly, making him stagger back, then stuck his swords into the rat's body, one in the chest and one through the stomach.

"Gah…no…how…could this…" the rat rasped, "I…am a…genius! How could I…lose…to a Man-Thing?!"

With that, Farsqueaker slumped, Issei drawing his swords out to allow the body of the Grand Packmaster to fall to the floor completely. He then went over and gave Boneripper a mercy stroke, severing its head. He then dismissed the **[Boosted Gear]** , with only seconds to spare on the timer.

 **You have slain Boneripper! You gain 600 EXP!**

 **You have slain Farsqueaker, the Grand Packmaster! You gain 700 EXP!**

 **You have acquired X4 Steel Knives!**

 **You have acquired X2 Skill books (Unknown Skills)!**

 **You have acquired the [Dissimulator Necklace]!**

 **You have acquired ¥6000!**

 **[Boost!] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **As a result of repeated actions, the skill [Observe] has been created.**

 **[Observe] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **A skill that allows the user to view information about people, animals and objects that this skill is directed upon. The higher this skills level is, the more information is gathered. Five MP per use.**

 **As a result of repeated actions, the skill [Ambidextrous] has been created.**

 **[Ambidextrous] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **A skill that permit's the user to use the off-hand for tasks. The higher the level of this skill, the more skilled the user will become with all manner of tasks.**

 **\- Passively reduces the Off-Hand penalty from 95% to 80%.**

 **As a result of repeated actions, the skill [Knife Throwing] has been created.**

 **[Knife Throwing] (Active/Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Although called 'knife throwing', this skill is actually for the throwing of any handheld bladed weapon. The higher the skill level, the more damage each thrown weapon will deal and the longer range you will be able to throw.**

 **\- Passively grants +5 DEX.**

 **\- Actively grants the user the ability to throw knives, with damage calculated as STR {Plus} Weapon Damage {Divided} by 2.**

 **\- Range: 8 Feet.**

 **\- Bonus Damage: 0.**

"OK…that's cool." Issei said with a grin. He was curious about the necklace so he equipped it and was taken aback by the loud trumpeting that came out of nowhere.

 **[Congratulations!]**

 **You have gathered the three pieces of the [Unknown] set of equipment! You gain ¥1000!**

 **Acquiring all pieces of the [Unknown] set grants you one random lesser skill!**

 **You gain [Lesser HP Regeneration]!**

 **[Lesser HP Regeneration] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **The regeneration rate of half-devils and lesser demons.**

 **\- Regeneration Rate of 1HP every 15 Minutes.**

Issei nodded happily. He'd needed something like that, since HP potions didn't seem to be forthcoming for whatever reason. He then checked out the **[Dissimulator Necklace]**.

 **[Dissimulator Necklace]**

 **Part of the Unknown set. This necklace alters the voice of the user to be utterly gender neutral and inflectionless. As a result, however, you suffer a 25% penalty to any attempt to any [Persuade] or [Seduce] actions taken while wearing this necklace.**

"Really?" he said, and then paused in surprise. He really sounded different!

"Now to get outta here…" he said, only for the door to slam shut behind him. Again.

Issei shook his head in exasperation. He really should have expected that, but no, he had to open his mouth.

"Well then, if I were a way out, where would I be?" Issei muttered, his eyes locked onto the box where Farsqueaker had stood when he had initially entered the arena. Resolved, Issei jogged over to the box and used his new daggers to climb up to the box. Just as he hopped over the edge, however, the arena door cracked, crumbled and collapsed. Issei put his hood up rather hastily. Then his jaw dropped as he saw who was striding through the shattered doorway.

 **Rias Gremory LV40**

 **[Heiress of the House of Gremory/Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess]**

 **Akeno Himejima LV38**

 **[Queen of Gremory/Priestess of Lightning]**

 **Kiba Yuuto LV 35**

 **[Knight of Gremory/Holy Sword Project Sole Survivor]**

 **Tōjō Koneko LV33**

 **[Rook of Gremory/Shirone]**

"What the hell?!"

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 **Next Chapter: Dodging Devils**

 **IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: OK, so again, people have been banging on about what they want in this story, mainly that they don't want Issei to become a Devil, yadda, yadda, yadda.**

 **Tough.**

 **My story, my rules. What I CAN promise you is that he will become a Devil in a different way and time than in Canon. Almost all the stories with Issei not being a Devil are a bit moody for my liking. If anyone can name any that aren't completely off-the-wall or too angst-ridden and dark, let me know though. Please check the reviews before posting them in case of duplicates.**

 **Check my Profile for my writing schedule.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 4: Dodging Devils**

Issei was having trouble adjusting to this situation.

Being targeted by a weird secret society that hated paranormals and supernaturals was one thing. Having four of the most popular members of my school glare him down was _quite_ another.

 **[Gamer's Mind] Activated!**

Whew. That was a relief. Now he could plan things out properly.

Rias Gremory was one of the 'Two Great Onee-sama' of Kuō Academy. Her western beauty was highly attractive, just as her mysterious air lent the allure of the unknown to her. President of the Occult Research Club, it was completely unknown what they got up to in their Clubhouse in the old school building.

Similarly, Himejima Akeno was the _other_ Great Onee-sama of the Academy and was the Yamato Nadeshiko to Rias' Western Beauty. Rumours had it she was the keeper of a Shinto Shrine somewhere in Kuō. Also a member of the ORC.

Yuuto Kiba was the so-called 'Prince' of the Academy and was disliked by almost all the males, but especially by Issei, Motohama and Matsuda. Aside from being kind and considerate to all females, nobody really knew much about him. Also a part of the ORC.

Tōjō Koneko was a petite girl who was called the 'Mascot of Kuō' because she was so adorably cute. Again, not much else was known about her and she was a member of the ORC.

"Is anyone here, Koneko-chan?" Rias asked her junior, who concentrated for a moment before pointing unerringly at Issei's current position.

"Someone's standing in that box, although it's very faint." The little girl replied in a monotone voice.

Issei had to chuckle self-depreciatingly at that. Typical. He had gotten his hands on something to conceal his presence from mundane and minor magic detection and the Mascot of Kuō found him without even trying.

"Could the person concealing themselves kindly show themselves, please?" the redhead called out politely. There was steel in her eyes as she spoke, however, indicating that the 'request' was little more than a demand.

He spoke without thinking, "Who are you to make demands of me?"

His voice, bland and inflectionless as the **[Dissimulator Necklace]** made it, was nevertheless clear and audible. Rias Gremory's eyebrows shot up and she held herself straighter.

"I am Rias Gremory, Heiress to the House of Gremory and ruler of this territory." She replied loftily.

"You say your name, especially that of your family, as if I should know it." Issei observed as he frantically searched for a way out. He spotted the row of leavers that the Grand Packmaster had used to summon the Rat Ogres. Three were pulled, with two still upright.

His words made the group below him exchange looks.

"You have no idea who I am, _in the middle of my territory_?" Rias asked sceptically, "You have no idea who the _House of Gremory_ are?"

"No." Issei replied, "I've been too busy killing those abominations to worry about petty things like territory and who is the titular ruler of it."

Above the levers there were pictograms. The first had a crude diagram of what had to be a Rat Ogre, the second had bars, and the third had a picture of a broken bone…Boneripper, of course. The fourth had more bars and the fifth had a pictogram of what looked like Giant Rats.

A small smile crept across Issei's face. Now that he had a plan, he had to find information about exactly who, and more to the point _what_ , Rias Gremory was. That could wait until later, however.

"Rias, he could have only gained knowledge of the supernatural recently." Akeno said softly.

Nodding, the redhead asked, "Is that true?"

"Correct." Issei answered, "I am afraid that further conversation will have to be postponed as I have a lunch engagement elsewhere."

"That isn't in the cards, I'm afraid." Rias said slowly, "I wish to know who you are, why you are rampaging through my territory and what these…ratmen are. I _will_ have answers."

"All good and reasonable questions." Issei allowed, "But we will have to talk another time, in a place that does not reek of sewage. In the meantime, you can kill some of those rats that I have yet to get to."

With that, he pulled the fourth lever before moving on to pull the fifth lever.

Immediately, a large metal cage slammed down atop the arena, locking the group of teens in the arena and opening up dog-sized holes in the walls. Out of these holes, Giant Rats emerged, snarling and foaming at the mouth.

"Why you…!" Rias snarled, magic pooling in her hands.

"Fare thee well." Issei said, wincing inside. This had been a bad idea, but it had been the only way to run away from the situation. All of them were Level thirty-plus. No way could he, a lowly Level 7, fight them and expect to win.

He turned around and dashed away down the passage that led away from the arena, the stone door slamming down firmly behind him. Fortunately, the passage was lit by torches and so he travelled down the path until he came to a room similar to the one from the [Den of the Ratlord].

Like that one, it was sparsely lit, with a single table in the centre. It also had a single piece of paper on it, with familiar writing on it. Walking over, he picked it up and started reading.

" _To Division Head, Project Rat King,_

 _It has been noted by the Council that the species #456b has developed several sub-species, such as the so-called 'Clanrats,' 'Stormvermin,' 'Packmasters,' and 'Giant Rats.' We would like to remind you that while diversity is good, species 456b is primarily for human-wave tactics, with the emphasis on rapid replacement of expendable troops._

 _Some members of the Council, however, are interested to see exactly what further mutations and strains may result in future generations, so you are being allocated additional resources to make such experiments feasible without compromising the bulk of your current work. Be warned however that results are required and should you fail to live up to the expectations being put upon you, there will be consequences._

 _On a different note, you are to compile a list of recommendations for the location of full field testing of species 456b. The criteria for testing sites are that the location must have, at the very least, an active presence of Devils. Preferably there will be active presences of at least one of the other main target races as well. The Council suggests somewhere in the Orient, as the Churches hold far too much influence in America and Europe and are too close to rapid reinforcement from the Vatican and other religious centres._

 _For the Purity and Sanctity of our Species and Souls._ "

' _Definitely the Purifiers._ ' Issei thought as he placed the paper in his inventory. The last line was practically a calling card.

Looking around, he couldn't see any sign of anything else of use or that drew his eye, other than the doors on the other side of the room, so he headed over that way and cautiously opened them, revealing a flight of stairs leading upwards.

Emerging in an abandoned warehouse, he quickly returned his battle gear to his inventory and set off home. He had a lot to think about.

 _With The Gremory Group_

"Eat this!" Rias snarled, and blasted another dozen malformed rodents with her Power of Destruction, reducing them to a mere memory in a blink on an eye, while Akeno blasted the infernal things with her thunder.

Kiba was slicing them to pieces with his Demonic Sword, while Koneko punched and kicked them into paste with her [Rook] enhanced strength.

Once the walls stopped disgorging rats and the last was killed, Rias actually growled.

"How _dare_ he attack me!" she snarled, "How _dare_ he attack my servants!"

"Rias, you were acting very…pushy…with him." Akeno pointed out as she magically cleaned the assorted blood and guts from Koneko with her magic, "I think he must be a Sacred Gear user of some sort, awoken recently, and he was telling the truth when he said he hadn't a clue as to who you or the House of Gremory are."

"It wouldn't explain the fact he or she was all but inflectionless, transparent _and set monsters_ on us!" Rias countered hotly.

"I couldn't make much out, but he knew that we were stronger than him." Kiba volunteered, "I think we were scaring the pants off of whomever it was just by standing there. You know how some [Kings] get humans into their Peerages, Buchou."

The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess' mouth twisted in disgust as she thought of those few among the High-Class Devils who kidnapped and forced humans into their Peerages. Disgraceful and thoroughly fitting that those Peerages were the ones who had their [Kings] killed by Stray Devil aspirants more often than not.

"I take your point, Yuuto." She sighed, "Still, this is troubling. Did you hear the way he referred to the ratmen as 'abominations'? Even with that magically induced monotone and inflectionless cadence he had going, I could tell that he felt nothing but contempt for the ratmen and their pets. Not that I blame him."

"Messy." Koneko opined.

"I think something is being schemed in the shadows." Rias sighed again, "We'll keep an eye out for anything unusual around Kuō, as well as keeping an eye out for whoever it is behind that enchanted device. New to the supernatural or no, I cannot have someone running around killing things on my territory without so much as a by-your-leave. Akeno, can you inform Sona for me? I have to go and meet with Beelzebub-sama soon."

"Of course, Rias." Akeno nodded, "Now, should we leave? It's going to take some time to get the stink of these sewers from our clothes."

"A good point." Rias nodded, "Koneko-chan, if you would?"

Nodding, the reincarnated Nekoshō walked nonchalantly over to the bars in front of the door and punched them into scrap metal, opening the way out for the rest of them.

As her Peerage walked out of the complex, the [King] of the group was deeply troubled. Although her Peerage was busy with school and contracts most of the day and night, it shouldn't have been possible to build two bases such as this inside Kuō Town without her knowledge, yet they were present.

' _Sona and I need to have a meeting and talk about this situation so our older siblings don't involve themselves._ ' Rias thought firmly. She was a King in her own territory and she did not need Sirzechs Lucifer butting in with his sister complex. She loved him dearly, but there was only so much babying that she could take, which was part of the reason why she came to Japan.

The same applied to Sona Sitri, Heiress of the House of Sitri. Serafall Leviathan was, if such a thing was possible, even worse than Sirzechs, treating anything that came against her beloved elder sister as an obstacle that needed to be removed. Sona, like Rias herself, loved her sister, but was very much embarrassed by her antics.

Neither of the Heiresses wanted interference from their all-powerful siblings, so Sona would doubtless agree to share the burden of searching for answers. Sona's servants were not as unique as her own, but she had more of them, seven or eight at the last count compared to Rias' four, one of whom was sealed away.

Yes, this situation would be contained one way or another… _then_ maybe she could concentrate on removing herself from that insult of a marriage contract with Riser Phenex.

 **IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

 _Later_

 _Hyōdō Residence_

Having gotten back in time for lunch, Issei had enjoyed just sitting down and having a relaxing meal with his mother, which was very rare nowadays, what with school and his dad going to work at all hours of the day and night.

Once lunch was taken care of and the dishes done, he retreated to his room to examine his stats since he had levelled up.

 **Name: Hyōdō Issei**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 7| Next Level: 825 EXP**

 **Title: Oppai Baka**

 **HP: 350/350**

 **MP: 175/175**

 **STR: 45**

 **STA: 41**

 **DEX: 51**

 **INT: 12**

 **WIS: 17**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: 22**

 **Attribute Points: 5**

 **¥: 21212**

Wow. That **[Awakened Sekiryūtei]** trait was really doing wonders for his physical stats. Seriously though, he needed to up his mental ones. He dropped all five points into INT.

"Why is…oh! The Bloodmetal Bracers must affect **[Lesser Draconic Charisma]** as well!" he muttered in realisation as he looked at his Charisma stat, "Definitely useful! Now, what was the loot from the boss…?"

Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out the two Skill books. Immediately, there was a loud 'Ding!' sound from out of nowhere and a screen popped up.

 **You have acquired your first Skill Books!**

 **Skill Books allow you to learn the skill they contain. All start at Level 1, just like self-learned skills. You can only learn three skills from Skill Books per day, however, as long as you are below Level 20. Additionally, learning the skill consumes the Skill Book.**

Issei was impressed and curious about what kind of skills he had gotten his hands on. Placing them down on his bed, they looked just like writing pads, albeit thin ones. He picked up the first one.

 **[You have acquired the [Lesser Earth Magic] Skill Book.]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Y/N**

"Yell yeah!" he said with wide eyes, "Exactly what I needed!"

Stabbing the 'Y' button, he watched as the book dissolved into blue light and vanished inside of his chest.

 **Congratulations! You have learned [Lesser Earth Magic]!**

 **[Lesser Earth Magic] (Passive/Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **The ability to use magic to create and control the earth and, to a lesser extent, the bounties of the earth. Since ancient times, this has been used to read the future, alter the landscape and other such uses. Lesser Earth Magic is the lowest branch of Earth Magic and is not very powerful. It can be highly useful in certain situations, however.**

 **\- Gain a 15% Power Boost to all spells thanks to [Gaia's Blessing].**

 **\- Access to Tier 0 and Tier 1 Spells.**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 0 [Minor Earth Movement] spell has been unlocked!**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 1 [Earthen Fist] spell has been unlocked!**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 1 [Earth Shot] spell has been unlocked!**

 **[Minor Earth Movement] [Tier 0] (Active) [Level 1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **The most basic spell in all of Earth Magic, this allows the user to infuse their magic with the earth and alter its composition. The amount of earth affected varies on experience and the amount of power you put into it.**

 **\- Costs 5MP per minute.**

 **\- Allows the control of one cubic foot of earth or soil. The earth/soil can be moved and shaped, but is still just soil or earth. It cannot be changed, just moved.**

 **[Earthen Fist] [Tier 1] (Active) [Level 1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **A basic application of earth magic, this spell surrounds one of the user's fists with solidly packed earth and rocks, adding armour and upping damage dealt by that fist. It is not indestructible, however and can be overwhelmed by strong enough blows by and to the user.**

 **\- Initially costs 30 MP and then a further 10 MP per minute to maintain it.**

 **\- One hand, selected by the user at the casting stage, is surrounded in earth and rock, mimicking the movements of the hand.**

 **\- That hand receives 5 armour and barehanded damage is raised by 5 as well. This does not take into account modifiers from other skills.**

 **\- Armour and barehanded damage raised by 15% to 5.75 by the effect of [Gaia's Blessing].**

 **[Earth Shot] [Tier 1] (Active) [Level 1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **A basic use of Earth Magic for offensive purposes, this simply rips a chunk of earth or rock from the ground, compresses and hardens it and then fires it at the enemy. Costing the most MP most of all the Tier 1 and Tier 0 spells; it is also the only offensive ability in those Tiers. At higher levels, the user can combine this spell with other spells for additional effects.**

 **\- Costs 40MP per shot.**

 **\- Deals (INT+WIS) multiplied by five, divided by two and plus 15% damage.**

Issei whistled at that. Those three spells were very useful. Well, the Tier 0 one was a bit useless, but it had possibilities outside of combat. His attention was drawn by another window popping up.

 **Congratulations!**

 **You have learned your first three spells! These are the ones randomly generated by the system for you to receive. Each tier has ten spells apiece and you will now be able to receive spells in Skill Book form as monster drops. Every time you achieve a tier or tiers, you will receive one to three spells for that branch of magic at random (of that element and in any tier you have unlocked only) as a reward. Once you have collected all spells for a tier AND achieved Level Ten with them all, you will be able to proceed to the next Tier. Some tiers are unlocked under special conditions only.**

"OK. Useful to know." He commented, "Now then, what is the other one…?"

He picked up the other Skill Book and looked at the window that popped up.

 **[You have acquired the [Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery] Skill Book]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Y/N**

"Definitely something that I need." Issei muttered. He couldn't exactly pull out his swords in the middle of the street if the Purifiers attacked him, could he? Knowing how to fight hand-to-hand was probably the best bet.

Hitting 'Y' again, he waited for the window to pop up.

 **Congratulations! You have learned [Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery]!**

 **[Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery] (Active/Passive) [Level 1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **The oldest and most basic way to fight in the history of the world, using your fist and feet to fight is seen in these modern times as a quaint anachronism in the face of guns and the like. Yet, in the world of the supernatural, this can be vital and necessary for the sake of self-defence.**

 **\- Grants user the basic knowledge of how to fight unarmed.**

 **\- Grants an additional +1 to all unarmed attacks or with gloves/gauntlets.**

 **\- Gains bonus points to unarmed attacks for every ten points in STR. Current Bonus: +4**

 **\- Gains bonus points to unarmed defensive moves for every ten points in DEX. Current Bonus: +5**

' _Huh…so instead of giving me a type of fighting style, it makes me familiar with fighting in general._ ' He concluded after staring at the screen for a moment.

Closing it, he then opened his inventory again and pulled out the magic eyes and enchanted whips from the Packmasters. The new skill he received the previous day, **[Observe]** , would be perfect to find out exactly what these things did. As it was only on Level 1, however, he would have to level it up before he would get any details on them.

" **[Observe]** " he said, staring at the first whip.

 **[Enchanted Whip]**

 **Level 4**

 **Whip**

 **A whip enspelled with an unknown enchantment.**

 **Piercing Damage: 0**

 **Slashing Damage: S Divided by 2**

 **Bludgeoning Damage: S+12**

"A bit more than I was expecting from a Level 1 skill." Issei commented. He used **[Observe]** on the other whips to find they were all exactly identical in terms of damage and level. It made sense, sort of. In some tabletop games, if you didn't know what a magic item did, it simply had no effect on the outcome of a fight. In this case, the lack of knowledge of what the enchantment was did nothing to the combat stats.

 **[Observe] has Levelled up! LV1-Lv2!**

"Ok, now let's try that first one again. **[Observe]**!" He said, focussing.

 **[Whip of Striking]**

 **Level 4**

 **Whip**

 **A whip enchanted with the power to increase the force of its strikes slightly. A minor enchantment, yet one that can be very useful.**

 **Durability: 25/40**

 **Piercing Damage: 0**

 **Slashing Damage: S Divided by 2**

 **Bludgeoning Damage: S +12 +20**

"Huh…go figure that one." Issei muttered. He **[Observed]** the other three whips and two were exactly the same, the only difference being the level of their durability. That was something of a concern, as he had no idea how to recover it, but as he has a lot of copper and bronze swords, he wasn't too concerned.

The last whip was only slightly different as well.

 **[Whip of the Wisp]**

 **Level 4**

 **Whip**

 **A whip enchanted to turn intangible twice a day upon utterance of the command word 'Mistborn.' Useful for bypassing mundane and lesser magical defences, it is useful as a hidden trump card.**

 **Durability: 30/40**

 **Special Ability: Intangibility. Upon the trigger word being uttered, the length of the whip, aside from the handle, turns insubstantial for up to ten seconds before reverting back to solidity.**

 **Piercing Damage: 0**

 **Slashing Damage: S Divided by 2**

 **Bludgeoning Damage: S+12**

Issei replaced the whips into his inventory as he considered what he had uncovered. The whips were…interesting, but he wasn't really of the inclination to use them as weapons. They were…not his style, bluntly put.

Dismissing his thoughts, he turned his attention to the magic eyes that he had taken from the Packmasters. There were only two of them, but they glittered as if they were made of a precious stone, like emeralds. Something about them made him wary though.

" **[Observe]** " he said firmly.

 **Warplock Eye**

 **Level 5**

 **Artefact**

 **An eye carved from purified Warpstone and loaded with various enchantments, allowing the user to see through it and even perceive the use of magic. Warpstone is a volatile magical substance, however, and creates mutations and insanity with constant exposure to flesh.**

 **Special Ability: Magic Perception: The user can see the flow of magic on people. Blue if not in use, Orange if being channelled passively to a spell or item and Red if being used actively.**

 **Warning! Replaces your actual eye if used!**

Eying the two eyes a lot more warily than just a few moments ago, Issei replaced them inside his inventory and resolved to find a way to dispose of them safely as soon as was possible. No _way_ was he even touching those things again without gloves or tongs.

 **You make a very sensible decision! +1WIS!**

"I swear this Gamer thing is taunting me…!" Issei grumbled. Lying back on his bed, he wondered what he should do for the rest of today. He could go out and raid another ratman den, but he really didn't want to annoy Gremory-senpai more than he already had.

Rias Gremory…just who _was_ she anyway? The way she spoke implied that she was in charge of Kuō somehow, but how? Who were the members of the Occult Research Club and what relation did they have to her? Issei wasn't skilled at reading people by any means, but they had all deferred to her as their leader in a manner similar to how a samurai would treat their sworn liege lord in one of those period dramas that his father liked to watch.

Information. He _needed_ information on Rias Gremory and her…group…before he could carry on attacking the ratmen's bases in Kuō. He thought for a minute before facepalming. _Duh._ He had his **[Observe]** skill. He could casually scan her at school and she'd be none the wiser. At least…he didn't _think_ that **[Observe]** counted as a spell, so any magic protections she might have wouldn't be set off.

' _Well, I should get my homework out of the way._ ' He thought morosely. He hated doing schoolwork, mainly because it was boring. He wasn't too bad at it, but things like maths and history weren't really his cup of tea. If anything, he was most fond of Classical Japanese, if only because it gave him plenty of time to think during class.

Sighing in frustration, he reached for his schoolbooks.

 _Five Days Later_

 _Kuō Academy_

 **[Schoolwork] (Passive) [Level 20, 14.39 EXP]**

 **The combined ability to complete all aspects of schoolwork, from homework to classwork to replying to the questions of the teacher. Level Max: 100**

 **\- Passively grants +10 INT.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of successfully completing classwork correctly by 30%.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of successfully completing homework correctly by 35%.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of successfully answering the teacher correctly by 30%.**

Issei's eye twitched as he regarded the new skill he had received after completing his homework. Five days on and he still couldn't believe that this kind of skill was available. It was certainly convenient, make no mistake about that, but his suspension of disbelief was having major difficulty accepting it.

"Issei!" a familiar voice called.

He looked up to see the other two members of what the school referred to as the Hentai San'nin-Gumi (Perverted Trio), Matsuda and Motohama.

 **Matsuda LV6**

 **[Perverted Baldy/Sexual Harassment Paparazzi]**

 **Motohama LV4**

 **[Perverted Glasses/Three Sizes Scouter]**

The fact that until recently he had been a lower level than Matsuda pissed Issei off somehow.

"Dude! What happened to your cheek!?" Motohama asked in concern.

Having taken the bandage off, Issei now had a long, thin scar down the length of his jaw. It wasn't glaringly obvious, but it wasn't hidden either.

"Some nutjob broke into my house and held me and my parent's hostage." Issei replied sourly, "He tried to kill me after going ever further off the deep end after a phone call. Otou-san and I took him down after I got a lucky hit in. I was lucky to get away with just a scar from his knife attack."

"Shitty luck, man." Matsuda said sympathetically, "Your parents alright?"

"Eh, shaken but not stirred." He replied with a shrug.

"Anyway, want to go peek on the Kendo Club?" Motohama asked eagerly.

It was so, so tempting, but he had to remain firm. He wanted to get rid of that damn Oppai Baka title.

"Sorry, can't." he told his shocked friends, "I'll be buried under with catch-up work for being off for a week, remember?"

"Crap. Forgot about that." Matsuda cursed. Of all the Perverted Trio, he got the highest grades and helped his friends stay above the cut-off point for their teachers to have a 'discussion' with their parents, "Need some help?"

"Let me have a look at what I have to get through first." Issei demurred, "You two go have fun."

"Again, luck sucks man." Motohama commiserated as he and Matsuda headed off to their usual peeking spot.

Sighing despondently, Issei padded to the Staff Office to talk to his teachers. On the way, he spotted his quarry, Rias Gremory, talking with the Student Council President, Shitori Sōna.

She was the third most popular girl in Kuō Academy after Rias Gremory and Himejima Akeno, popular with girls and slightly masochistic boys among others. She was a strict disciplinarian and had a cool, unshakable air about her that was attractive. Her body may not have been comparable to the other two but it was svelte and lithe. The name floating above her head gave him pause, however.

 **Sona Sitri LV41**

 **[Heiress of the House of Sitri/Kuō Academy Student Council President]**

What the heck was going on here? _Another_ Heiress to a family he had no idea about? Things were getting more and more confusing. He would **[Observe]** Sōna-kaichou later as she was around far more often than Rias Gremory.

" **[Observe]** " he whispered as he walked towards the two girls. He ignored the screen that popped up as he walked past, nodding politely to them as he passed. When he got to the boy's bathroom, he took a stall and locked it tight before having a look at it.

 **Name: Rias Gremory**

 **Race: Pureblood Devil**

 **Class: [King]**

 **Level: 40| Next Level: ? EXP**

 **Title: Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess/Heiress of the House of Gremory**

 **HP: ?-?-?/?-?-?**

 **MP: ?-?-?/?-?-?**

 **STR: ?**

 **STA: ?**

 **DEX: ?**

 **INT: ?**

 **WIS: ?**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: ?**

 **LD: ?**

 **Special Status: Pureblooded Devil (Passive) [+5 Attribute Points per Level, gains two points in stats for every AP spent], Devil Wings [Is allowed to fly], Joint Ruler of Kuō Town (Passive) [Has been bestowed with the duty of hunting Stray Devils in Kuō Town along with Sona Sitri], Devil's Temptation (Passive) [+20% to all [Charm] and [Persuade] actions.]**

 **Perks: - Heiress of the House of Gremory**

 **\- Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess**

 **\- Seduction from the Darkness**

 **Flaws: - Light-Bane**

 **\- Holy Weakness**

 **\- Cares Too Much**

"What the fuck?" Issei breathed. Devil? Gremory-sempai was an actual _devil_? As in fire and brimstone from western mythology? What the hell was going on here?

Shaking his head, he looked at the stats. He couldn't see any numbers! Reaching out to press the question marks replacing the numbers in HP, a screen popped up at his touch.

 **This person is too high of a level for [Observe] to read their HP at its current level. Additionally, they are of a supernatural race with a high degree of skill in magic, which is interfering in the use of [Observe].**

This made the brown-haired boy frown. His **[Observe]** was at Level 10 right now as he had been exhausting his MP every day for the last five days to get it up as high as he could get it in case of something like this and it still wasn't high enough?

' _Lesson learned._ ' He mused with a shrug. Next time, he'd have it considerably higher.

Moving on to the Special Status, the **[Devils Wings]** one was obvious. Opening it up, he discovered that she could manifest her wings whenever she pleased using her 'demonic energy,' which was the devil's version of MP, he presumed.

 **[Pureblooded Devil]** on the other hand was probably what it sounded like, but he didn't think Devils were concerned about bloodlines, so he clicked on it to see the details.

 **[Pureblooded Devil]**

 **The bearer of this status is 100% Devil and has no non-Devil personages in his or her ancestry. This grants their Demonic Magic a bonus of 20% power with -15% DEP (Demonic Energy Points) cost to all spells. Additionally their body will naturally be far stronger than that of a human from a young age, starting off with a base count of 20 per physical stat. It also bestows the Flaws [Light-Bane] and [Holy Weakness], as well as the Perk [Seduction from the Darkness] and the Special Status [Devil's Temptation] upon the holder.**

Issei had to silently whistle in amazement. Looks as if being a Devil seriously had its perks! The bonuses to their own brand of magic alone would be worth it, let alone the physical stat bonus! The **[Devil's Temptation]** was an application of the natural charm and persuasion abilities of devils.

The **[Joint-Ruler of Kuō]** status would explain why she was so angry at him for basically ignoring her. Still, when he pulled up the list of people who had to give her notice before doing something in her territory, humans were only included if they were a member of any Church or the Shinto Pantheon. Other than that, it was a list of supernatural races, like Yōkai.

Filing that as a counter-argument if she pushed the point should they meet later, he checked out her Perks and Flaws.

 **[Heiress of the House of Gremory] (Passive)**

 **The person who bears this title is the first person in line to inherit the title of Gremory, one of the few remaining 72 Pillar families. This grants them nigh-untouchable status and authority within the Gremory Territories, as well as the [Leadership] stat.**

 **[Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess] (Passive)**

 **This title denotes the holder to be a female descendent of the Bael Family and one who has inherited their talents at that. The title will always retain the 'Ruin Princess' section, but the first section will change depending on the hair-colour of the holder. The holder has access to the unique Demonic Magic of the Bael Family, the Power of Destruction, as well as a further 20% increase to the power of all Demonic Magic.**

 **[Seduction from the Darkness] (Passive)**

 **Devils are well known for taking on the appearance of handsome men and beguiling females, especially in the case of the succubae and incubate. As such, the holder of this Perk has the optimal appearance for being seductive for their gender and general appearance, granting them the Charisma stat and a further +10 to all [Persuade], [Seduce] and [Charm] actions.**

 **[Light-Bane] (Passive)**

 **Created by Lucifer, the first Maō, Devils are the very antithesis of Angels. They gain power in the darkness and shadows, while the weaker among them lose power in the sunlight. Any who hold this power gain +10 buff to all stats during the night. Additionally, those who are below Level 20 suffer a -20 Debuff to all physical stats and a -10 debuff to all mental stats during the day, regardless of whether it is sunny or not. Light-type weapons will also be 20% more effective against any Devil, regardless of level.**

 **[Holy Weakness] (Passive)**

 **The God of the Bible's Holy power is even worse for Devils than Light, attacking their souls as well as their bodies. Should a Devil become injured as a result of Holy-type weaponry, spells or auras, the effects will be 50% more effective and reduce any healing spell or item's effectiveness by 60%.**

 **[Cares Too Much] (Passive)**

 **The holder of this Flaw is very empathic and caring towards those he or she cares about. This is usually a good thing, except it can lead to them being paralyzed if something happens to those they care for in the middle of battle. The holder receives a 25% bonus to Reputation gains to those he or she is at [Friendly] status or higher, but should those at that status be harmed around her, there is a 50% chance of he or she freezing up and hesitating.**

"Damn…" Issei whispered. The Devils had a very powerful skillset at their fingertips, especially a pureblood Devil like Rias Gremory. The downsides were severe, especially the Light and Holy weaknesses, but still it was a pretty sweet deal altogether.

The last Flaw was a pretty surprising one for a Devil, but it did fit what little he knew about the crimson-haired girl. She was fairly gentle and had begged out of dissection day in Biology, according to rumours.

Just for the sake of comparison, he'd have a look at Kiba Yuuto, as he was in a couple of Issei's classes. That would be an interesting read, if nothing else. Kiba was the idol of all the Academy's girls, but held himself aloof from them and the boys as well. This whole devil thing would go a long way towards explaining why he did that.

Issei stood up and flushed the toilet before leaving as a cover. This time he really did have to go to the staff office and talk to his teachers. He'd arrived early just in case he ran into Rias Gremory as he had done.

' _Time to pay the piper._ ' He grimaced. He didn't like teachers much. They were either stodgy old men or women, young _ikemen_ males with no idea what it was like for someone with average looks or arrogant young women who looked down on average boys. Most of his teachers were ikemen, which pissed him off something cruel.

After school, he vowed, he'd start dungeoneering again. That would be nice and cathartic for him. Kikuchi-sensei would be the worst. Fortunately, he had all his homework done, so they couldn't be angry at him for that…he hoped.

 _After School_

"Issei, what's with the long face?" Matsuda asked as he and Motohama jogged up to their friend. Issei did look sour as he replied.

"None of the sensei believe me about what happened. They're asking for a parent-teacher meeting regarding my 'blatant lying' and 'over-exaggeration of the facts' or so they say."

"That's not going to make them happy." Motohama said with a wince, "Didn't your parents tell them what had happened to you the day it actually went down?"

"Slipped their minds." Issei shrugged, "Meh. They'll set things straight when this meeting happens. It'll be nice to see the teachers eat humble pie for a change."

This made his friends nod sagely. Seeing the boot on the other foot for a change would be good.

"Lemme guess; you have to head home and tell your folks about this?" Matsuda predicted as he adjusted his glasses.

"Yup." Issei nodded in confirmation.

"Welp, all the more beauties for us!" Motohama finished for his bespectacled friend.

Shouting their goodbyes, the two charged off to once more peep on a female club.

' _A harem is worth it!_ ' Issei chanted in his head, ' _A harem is worth it!_ '

After he walked home and told his parents about what the teacher's said, he was taken aback at how angry they both were with the school. Evidently, having almost been killed by a lunatic, his parents were in hyper-defence mode regarding their family, especially Issei, as the only one who had been harmed by the man.

After a light dinner, Issei made his going-for-a-walk excuse and headed out, pulling the map out and heading towards Ratman Den V, which was in another run-down building in a quiet part of town. Equipping his armour, cloak and necklace, Issei stepped forward, prompting a window to pop up.

 **[Warning!]**

 **You are about to enter the dungeon [Domain of the Warp Rat] (LV7)**

 **Once you enter this dungeon, you must clear it before exiting.**

 **Do you wish to enter?**

 **Y/N**

Warp Rat? What the heck? The names for these dungeons got more and more confusing. Shrugging, Issei hit 'Y' and then yelped as he was dropped down a hole.

'The universe is laughing at me!' Issei shrieked in his mind as he fell, cape flapping in the wind.

 **IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

 **Next Chapter: A Right Rat's Nest**

 **IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Yo. Here we have chapter five of Issei: the Gaming Gear. I'm uploading this instead of After the Chamber: Lords and Ladies because, frankly, I have a case of writing block where it is concerned. Hopefully, it will pass soon, so fingers crossed fans of Harry Potter.**

 **To address a review made a couple of chapters ago, regarding the ratmen. I will agree that yes, the dungeons created by the skill [ID Create] are full of mindless monsters. The ratman dens are not created by the [Gaming Gear]; they existed before it activated. All the [Gaming Gear] is doing is making use of the pre-existing dungeon-like areas of Kuō for Issei's benefit. Similarly, the ratmen existed before the [Gaming Gear] activated, so if they talk, it's because they talked before that too. Hope this clears things up a bit.**

 **Check my Profile for my writing schedule.**

 **Read, review and check out my other stories.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 5: A Right Rat's Nest**

 _In the Pit_

"AAAAAAGGGHHHHH!" Issei yelled as he plummeted down the pit. He wasn't thrilled about this situation and really hoped that there was something to catch him at the bottom other than solid ground, otherwise he would lose a lot of HP. Thank kami for [Gamer's Body].

After some time, he finally caught sight of the bottom of the pit he was in, and it did not fill him with eagerness as it was a pool of black water. Quickly curling into a ball just before he hit the water, it still hurt Issei quite a bit.

 **-50 HP!**

Swimming up and breaking the surface, Issei gasped for air before heading to the side of the pool and hauling himself out, covered in the black water. He was just glad he hadn't swallowed any of the stuff.

Looking around, he spotted a chest outside the only doorway, so headed over to it and opened it up, finding a skill book inside.

 **[You have acquired the [Lifestyle Magic] skill book.]**

 **Do you wish to learn this skill?**

 **Yes/No**

"…seriously?" Issei asked aloud before shrugging. It would be useful at the moment, provided he rolled a spell that let him remove this crap from his clothes, so he hit the 'Yes' button.

 **Congratulations! You have learned [Lifestyle Magic]!**

 **[Lifestyle Magic] (Passive/Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **Created by mages in the distant past to make living alone in towers bearable, without the grunt labour part. Many spells have since become redundant thanks to modern conveniences, but since most magicians and other spellcasters shun them, the importance of these spells has yet to fluctuate.**

 **\- Grants access to Tier 0 and Tier 1 spells.**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 1 spell [Dust Erasure] has been unlocked!**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 0 spell [Lesser Dirt Repelling Aura] has been unlocked!**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 1 spell [Cleansing] has been unlocked!**

 **[Dust Erasure] [Tier 1] (Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **Dust, made up of dead human skin cells, plant pollen, human and animal hairs, textile fibres, paper fibres and other things from the local environment, is a constant nuisance and one of the reasons people dislike cleaning. This spell removes and kind of dust within a set area. A master of this spell can remove dust from an entire house all at once.**

 **\- Area of Effect: One Foot Square**

 **\- 5 MP per use.**

 **[Lesser Dirt Repelling Aura] [Tier 0] (Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **One of the banes of working in the garden or with plants in general is that compost and dirt cling to your skin and clothes no matter what you do, even if you wear gloves. This spell surrounds your hands with a small aura of brown light that repels small clumps of dirt. With time, the user can surround their entire body with the aura, although it is still fairly weak.**

 **\- Target Location: Hands (Down to the wrist).**

 **\- Dirt will be unable to cling to the affected locations unless an overwhelming amount is dropped atop the areas, cancelling the spell.**

 **\- Aura armour is 25 and decreases rapidly if a great amount of earth is placed atop or around them.**

 **\- 5 MP to activate, 3MP per minute to maintain it.**

 **\- As it is an earth-based spell, receives +15% to its power due to [Gaia's Blessing].**

 **[Cleansing] [Tier 1] (Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **A basic cleaning spell used by travelling mages to remove dirt, sweat, blood and the like from their clothes and skin. It is the more powerful version of the Tier 0 [Refresh] spell.**

 **\- Area of Effect Target: Self.**

 **\- Effect: Weak.**

 **\- Duration: 15 seconds.**

 **\- 10 MP per use.**

"Alright! **[Cleansing]**!" Issei cheered, activating the spell he had been after. White light gleamed around him and the muck from the pool flaked and fell off in clumps before the light faded. It took another couple of uses of [Cleansing] before he was completely clean.

"I swear, this is way too convenient." He muttered. Was his Gaming Gear taunting him? Getting him filthy before giving him magic to remove it?

Shaking his head, Issei pulled his hood up and advanced down the passage. Ending up in another round room, he was unsurprised to find another chest with a skeleton over it. Behind the chest was another set of stairs, going up this time.

Opening it, Issei found two things; a red-coloured metal Japanese helmet and a skill book. He choose to pick the helmet up first and used **[Observe]** on it.

 **[Bloodmetal Kabuto]**

 **A Japanese helmet made from Bloodmetal, it is made in the Hoshi-bachi style. It offers decent light protection for the head and can have a Menpō added to add protection and hide the identity of the wearer, but its true value is in how it nurtures the growth of draconic abilities while being worn.**

 **Kabuto-style Helmet**

 **\- Grants 25 armour to all covered locations.**

 **\- Increases the EXP gained by all [Draconic] skills by 30%.**

"Man." Issei whistled, "So wearing it. Now what do we have here…?"

He picked up the Skill Book and of course, the screen popped up with the expected question.

 **[You have acquired the [Defensive Magic] skill book.]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Y/N**

This made Issei pause. Up until now, he had been able to read the difficulty level increasing by the amount of assistance that the Gamer ability was giving him in the form of Skill Books and armour. This particular combination of a helmet and a defensive magic skill book was ringing alarm bells in his mind.

' _Definitely got to learn this._ ' He thought worriedly, ' _Also got to be careful if the [Gaming Gear] thinks that this place warranted such a big increase in defence when the last place had huge ogres that could crush a human's skull like an egg!_ '

Hitting 'Yes', he watched as the book exploded into blue light and was absorbed into his body.

 **Congratulations! You have learned [Defensive Magic]!**

 **[Defensive Magic] (Active/Passive) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **To put it basically, there are three categories of magic in combat; Offensive Magic, which is used to attack, Defensive Magic, which is used to protect oneself or allies and Supplementary Magic, into which all spell which do not fall under the first two categories fall. Whether it be protection against status effects, actual protection of the body or against specific type of attack, the magic of this skill can protect against it.**

 **\- Grants access to Tier 0 and Tier 1 spells.**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 1 spell [Lesser Barrier Shield] has been unlocked!**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 0 spell [Bronze Skin] has been unlocked!**

 **Spell unlocked! The Tier 1 spell [Force Absorption Field] has been unlocked!**

 **[Lesser Barrier Shield] [Tier 1] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **A basic unidirectional shield that can block mundane and magical attacks. It has limited durability, so it can be overwhelmed given enough time. Initially, you are only able to protect yourself with this shield, but experienced users can use it to protect others.**

 **\- Durability: 50**

 **\- Colours: Red and green.**

 **\- Target: Self.**

 **\- 20 MP to activate, 5 MP per minute to maintain.**

 **[Bronze Skin] [Tier 0] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **A technique developed long in the past by combat mages in Greece to increase their soldier's defence by hardening their skin to the consistency of bronze, it is a neglected spell nowadays due to the numerous techniques that have supplanted it. Nevertheless, it is a useful spell within its own limited sphere.**

 **\- Range: Self.**

 **\- Hardens skin to that of bronze while reducing movement speed.**

 **\- While active, all skin has and armour rating of 5.**

 **\- While active, movement is reduced by 5%.**

 **\- While active, increases the damage dealt be [Hand-to-Hand Combat] by 5.**

 **\- 15 MP to activate, 8 MP per minute to remain active.**

 **\- Vulnerable to extended exposure to extreme heat.**

 **[Force Absorption Field] [Tier 1] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **A spell that affects all allied units within a certain radius of the user, it reduces the force of any physical attacks or weapons by a certain amount. Highly useful when you are opposing modern firearms.**

 **\- Affects all allied units within 1 Metre.**

 **\- Reduces the physical force of** **any** **attacks against affected units by 10%, which in turn reduces the amount of damage dealt by the attacks.**

 **\- 10 MP to activate, then 6 MP per minute per person to maintain.**

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but it'll do." Issei muttered as he placed the helmet on his head and drew the hood over it. Picking his swords up again, he moved around the chest and started up the stairs carefully. He would have to find a way to raise his MP by quite a bit to use the spells he knew effectively; at the moment, using his defensive spells alone would drain him dry of MP in just over a minute if you included the initial MP used to activate said skills.

At the top of the stairs, there was a square entry room with nothing in it that had one door leading out of it. Nailed onto the top of it was a sign written in very crude English.

"'Hooman-thinks. Entr + die-die! Yoo hve bin wrned!'" Issei read with a grimace. Even he had better English writing skills than that and he was at the dead middle of the class.

" **[Lesser Barrier Shield]** " he muttered as he opened the door and stepped through cautiously. No sooner had the red and green circular barrier flickered into place than a loud [BANG!] echoed and a green missile slammed into the energy shield, cracking it.

"Crap!" Issei cursed, cancelling the shield and dodging behind a stone pillar just in time to avoid another bullet. Peering around the corner, he spotted a pair of ratmen furiously reloading a pair of crudely-built long-muzzled guns while another pair stood in front of them holding a pair of triangular shields.

' _What the heck kind of weird guns are they?_ ' Issei thought before he ducked behind the pillar again as the muzzles of the weapons were pointed at him again.

 **Ratman Jezailier LV 10**

 **[Not-so-Sharpshooter]**

 **Ratman Shielder LV10**

 **[Fair Weather Protector]**

A Jezail? What the heck was one of those things when they were at home? Obviously some kind of one-shot gun, but when had the ratmen gotten their hands on guns?!

The Shielder was acting as both protection and as a platform for the Jezail wielder, as the rifle was too long and unwieldy for the ratman to aim properly without something to lean the body of the weapon on, so the thing to do was to eliminate them first.

The problem was, his list of long range attacks were very limited. He could use [Knife Throwing], but the damage would be minimal and he only had about five knives left in his inventory. Other than that, the only skill he had that was usable here was the [Earth Shot] spell.

Issei winced as two more bullets slammed into the pillar he was hiding behind and started counting in his head. He stopped when another pair of bullets slammed into his hiding place.

' _About forty seconds. That should be long enough for me to go out, blast one of the Shielders and then get under cover again._ ' The Sekiryūtei thought, ' _I'll move when they both fire again._ '

When the two Jezails barked their payloads again, Issei moved fast. He, pulled his hood down, leapt out and pointed a sword at the shield-user on the right.

" **[Earth Shot]!** "

In front of him, a large lump of earth appeared and formed into a bullet-shape before hurtling at the target, smashing through the shield and removing the head of the ratman that held it. The nerveless corpse thudded to the floor along with the broken shield it had supported.

 **You have slain a [Ratman Shielder]! You gain 130 EXP!**

 **You have inflicted the [Cumbersome] status on a [Ratman Jezailier]!**

Dodging to the pillar on the other side just in time to dodge the panicked shot from the other Jezail, Issei grinned. That took care of one of them. He reached out to the window and tapped the [Cumbersome] status to see what it did.

 **[Cumbersome] (Passive)**

 **Someone inflicted with this status has been overweighed with equipment or an oversized weapon, resulting in movement being reduced by 40% and accuracy reduced by 30% due to the weight of the weapon/armour.**

Considering that the accuracy of the Ratmen mustn't be all that high to begin with, that meant that one of the Jezails might as well be shooting blanks. He could handle the remaining one alone.

"[ **Lesser Barrier Shield]**!" Issei snarled as he came out from cover. The shield materialised again, intercepting the bullet from the one remaining Jezail user that had a Shielder. The other one shot wide.

Rushing forwards, he sent another **[Earth Shot]** at the Shielder, killing it. As the two gun-wielding Ratmen panicked, Issei got in amongst them, disembowelling the one on the right and beheading the one on the left.

 **You have slain a [Ratman Shielder]! You earn 130 EXP!**

 **You have slain X2 [Ratman Jezailiers]! You earn 300 EXP!**

 **Do you wish to loot the bodies, including the one slain prior to the above?**

 **Yes/No**

Hitting 'Yes,' Issei watched as the list formed up.

 **X2 Warplock Jezails**

 **X2 Magiscopes**

 **X2 Shattered Triangular Pavise**

 **X4 Ragged Leather Tunics**

 **X2 Lesser MP Potions**

 **X1 Skill Book (Unknown Skill)**

 **¥758**

Considering he'd seen the familiar shine of Warpstone on the Jezails, Issei didn't want anything to do with them. He marked the Jezails, the useless shields and the tunics for sale, earning him another ¥2367. Then he pulled one of the MP potions out of his inventory and **[Observed]** it.

 **[Lesser MP Potion]**

 **A common potion used by apprentice-level magicians and other magic users. While weak, it is commonly used due to the fact it can be created by even a beginner potioneer.**

 **\- Rarity: Very Common**

 **\- Restores 150 MP when drunk.**

When he drunk it, Issei almost spat it out. It tasted like concentrated wasabi and miso! It did work though, filling his MP back up to a full tank again in an instant. Then he turned his attention to the Skill Book, aware that he could only acquire one more Skill from a Skill Book today.

 **[You have acquired the [Tier 1 Earth Magic: Small Pit of Spikes] Skill Book]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Yes/No**

At this point in time, no.

Hitting 'No,' he stowed the book into his inventory before having a look around the passage he was in. It was fairly narrow, with four pillars set into the walls at intervals. It being narrow would prevent enemies from jinking around to throw off the aim of the Jezails, but that advantage was negated by the pillars acting as ready-made cover.

 **You receive +1 INT for a well thought out deduction!**

Shut up!

Issei then had a look at the Magiscopes. They were why he had been attacked even with his Cloak fully deployed, as they granted the skills [Mage Sight] and [Awareness Amplification] to anyone who looked through them. If all the Jezails had those things, this would be a pain in the ass dungeon to clear.

Flipping his hood on again nevertheless, Issei moved forwards cautiously. The doorway into the next room was open and this made him suspicious. Peeking into the next room, he spotted his next opponents, four of them. Organised into teams of two, they each carried a weapon between them.

One was clearly a flamethrower of some kind, demonstrated by the fact the one carrying the business-end unleashed it at a Giant Rat, green flames engulfing the hapless rodent, leaving only a charred skeleton behind. The other ratman carried a large wooden tank on its back, which presumably held the fuel for the weapon, and was connected by a heavily patched leather hose to the rear of the flamethrower.

The other weapon was a goddamn mini-Gatling Gun, not something that Issei wanted to play chicken with. The other rat seemed to be responsible for operating the cooling system or something. The two teams were walking around in a circular room with a central pillar and no other obstacles to prevent a certain Sekiryūtei from getting burn to a crisp or ventilated with bullets.

Brute force wouldn't help him here; Issei would have to use his mind to fight here. His new magic, [Force Absorption Field], was only Level 1 and wouldn't slow the bullets down by much. As a kid, he'd liked Superman and wondered how fast a speeding bullet really was. The answer had been informative.

Nowadays, bullets from even 0.22 rimfire cartridge averaged between 370 and 460 metres per second and those were the slowest he had found other than shotgun shells (335-427mps). As this was a machine gun-type, and a supernatural one at that, he guessed that the speed of the bullets would be quite a bit faster than that. No way did he want to get in the way of those bullets.

That left the flamethrower. If he could get in close and cut the fuel line before retreating, he'd eliminate the effectiveness of the weapon to a small belch of flames before becoming dead weight. On the other hand, he didn't want to get burned by that stuff either, and he was quite fond of the [Rapscallion Wave Blade], so he'd use the plain steel short sword for that, just in case the raw fuel of the flamethrower is corrosive as well as flammable.

Mind made up, he checked one more time, this time for Levels and to see if they had any Magiscopes that could spot him in his Cloak.

 **Ratman Fireteam – Warpfire Thrower LV13**

 **[Burning Hell]**

 **Ratman Fireteam – Ratling Gun LV13**

 **[Destructive Impulse]**

' _Pretty high levels. Definitely not trash mobs._ ' Issei thought as he looked them over. They also didn't have any sights mounted on their weapons or false eyes or eyepieces, so he guessed that the coast was clear.

Stepping softly, he made his way through the door and waited for the Warpfire Thrower to pass by him. It was a rather agonising wait, but it paid off. As the team passed by him, he quickly flipped his hood off, slammed the steel short sword through the hose connecting the two parts of the equipment and then stabbed the ratman holding the weapon part of the oversized flamethrower in the back of the head, dropping it with a screech of pain as it died. He turned and stabbed the flailing tank carrier in the throat before pulling his hood up and dodging away to the pillar's shadow.

 **You have slain [Ratman Fireteam – Warpfire Thrower]! You gain 330 EXP!**

The Ratling Gun team rounded the pillar just as he did so, squeaking and whining before chattering at each other in what must have been their own language before the lead ratman pointed the muzzle of the Ratling Gun at the corpses of the Warpfire Thrower team and turned a crank, unleashing a storm of lead that perforated the bodies and ground like Swiss cheese. One round must have ignited the fuel tank, as it exploded, unleashing a massive gout of eerie green flames and an explosion that Issei could feel even from the pillar he was up against.

'Better take them out before the lead idiot decides to spray the rest of the room.' Issei thought as he flipped down his hood. Aloud, he said, "[ **Earth Shot]!** "

The missile smashed into the body of the ratman holding the weapon, crushing the arm that turned the crank and making it screech in agony.

 **Ratman Ratling Gun Team A, left arm crippled!**

Having neutralised the ability of the Ratling Gun to actually fire, Issei charged in and ended the fight with two more slashes, one decapitating the wielder of the weapon, the other hitting the heart of the other one.

 **You have slain [Ratman Fireteam – Ratling Gun]! You gain 335 EXP!**

 **You have levelled up! LV7-LV8!**

 **You have 5 Attribute points to spend!**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Ambidextrous] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Earth Shot] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **As a result of repeated actions, you have learned the [Ambushing] skill!**

 **[Ambushing] (Passive/Active) [LV1, 00.00EXP]**

 **The ability to conceal oneself and attack from within that cover is a classic military tactic. Ambushing is well known to have been a major part of most wars down through the ages. There was even a case of two armies ambushing one another simultaneously without knowing about it. The more skilled you are at this skill, the more damaging your actions against the enemy will be after employing it against them.**

 **\- Passively grants +10 to the effects of all stealth-related skills.**

 **\- Actively increases all damage dealt by the user for one minute after leaving stealth by +10%.**

 **As a result of repeated actions, you have learned the [Disengage] skill!**

 **[Disengage] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **A skilled soldier will know when to attack. A very skilled soldier will know when to attack and when to retreat. A masterful soldier knows both of these and has the ability to enact them.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of successfully disengaging from active combat with enemies by 5%.**

 **Do you wish to loot the bodies? Due to damage done to the Warpfire Thrower team, these bodies cannot be looted.**

 **Yes/No**

Hitting 'Yes', Issei impatiently waited for the list to load, then sold all of it. He wanted none of that Warpstone crap near him and was looking for a way to get rid of the two Warpstone eyes that he had already. His earnings were ¥658 from the Ratling Gun and a further ¥1507 from selling the rest of the stuff.

Moving to the other side of the pillar, Issei frowned at the large set of steel double-doors, then deepened his frown when he spotted the rectangular lock at chest height. A puzzle lock, in the form of a picture. Five animal cut-out blocks set up in a cross, with the four cardinal directions noted.

In the south was a picture of a blue dragon, to the west was a red bird, to the north a white tiger, to the east a black turtle and in the centre was a yellow dragon. Beneath the picture was a single sentence.

 **Restore the Guardians to their proper places and protect the Ancient Capital.**

Issei frowned. The modern capital of Japan was Tokyo, formerly Edo, and had been since the end of the Warring States Period 400 year previously, so the riddle must refer to Kyoto. The five animals were obviously the animal gods that protected cities; Seiryū, Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu and Kōryū.

He dimly remembered that Kōryū, the Yellow Dragon, was the Guardian of the Centre, so that one was right. Strictly speaking not one of the Japanese elements as it represented Earth, but was commonly compared to an Ōryū, so often included.

"The question is the other four…" he muttered, squinting at the pictures. He dimly remembered an anime or two that featured the four animal gods. That was based on the Chinese elements though.

"Ah screw it." He decided. Reaching out, he removed the four pictures and placed them back in the order that had been popularised in the anime. Seiryū in the east, Suzaku to the south, Byakko in the west and Genbu in the north.

As he pressed the cut-out block with Genbu on it in place, the lock started making noises, like that of gears turning. Issei stepped back cautiously as the box sank into metal housing before the doors creaked open inwardly, darkness hiding the room within.

"And that really builds up my confidence." The Sekiryūtei muttered uneasily. He perked up as another window popped up.

 **As a result of a specific action, you have gained the skill [Puzzle Solving]!**

 **[Puzzle Solving] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **Puzzles, riddles, tricks and traps are the enemy of any dungeon explorer aside from the monsters that dwell within the dungeons. While traps aren't covered, puzzles, tricks and riddles should be easier to solve with this skill. Any mystery devised by mortal minds can be solved therein.**

 **\- Passively adds 5 to WIS.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of solving a puzzle by 10%.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of solving a riddle by 10%.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of solving a trick item by 10%.**

"Useful." Issei commented before squaring his shoulders and walking through the doorway, the doors clanging shut behind him.

As soon as they did, torches mounted on the walls started to catch afire, more eerie green flames dimly illuminating a corridor that was sloping upwards, with roughly hewn pillars spaced evenly along the walls.

For some reason, he had a bad feeling about this, so he walked softly near the wall to his right and strained his eyes to try and spot any enemies that would appear ahead of him.

He paused after about five minutes when he heard a rattling noise coming from up ahead. Peering up, Issei's eyes widened before he dived to take cover behind a pillar. Just in time, as a massive rattling wheel with several ratmen inside it sped past, rolling over where Issei had been just a short moment ago.

"Did I just barely avoid getting run over by the world's biggest hamster wheel?" Issei forced himself to ask aloud, as if to confirm the absurdity he had just witnessed. There was the supernatural, and then there was the plain weird.

Advancing up the path again, Issei dodged two more supersized rat wheels that tried to crush him. It was actually fairly easy to avoid them, as the loud rattling sound they made as they trundled down the sloping corridor was very obvious.

Eventually, he made it to the top and peered around. Seeing no sign of any more wheels of doom, he advanced into the room ahead and stopped. Ten Clanrats stood guard in the room, armed with crude spears and shields. Careful examination of the room showed that there was no sign of any other traps or hidden guns in the room, nor were there any large areas that were hidden by boxes or furniture.

In other words, an area he could cut loose in.

 **Clanrat LV10**

 **[Hired Help]**

 **Clanrat Claw Leader Vrrkin LV12**

 **[Squad Leader]**

Interesting. So one of them was stronger than the others and was the leader. Based on the actions of the Ratmen in the past, the leader would send the others to fight Issei first before reluctantly fighting himself.

Deciding to take advantage of his new [Ambushing] skill, Issei carefully manoeuvred himself around the seemingly randomly patrolling ratmen until he was behind two who were chittering to each other in that odd language of theirs. He flipped down his hood and attacked, beheading one of the ratmen and seriously wounding another. The wounded ratman screeched in agonised fury, alerting the rest of the rats to Issei's location.

 **You have slain a [Clanrat]! You earn 125 EXP!**

"Man-thing! Kill-kill!" Vrrkin ordered. Unlike the rest of the Clanrats, he was equipped with a serrated sword that dripped a foul-looking black ooze to the ground. Issei resolved to not get cut by it.

Evading a spear thrust, the Sekiryūtei swiped the wounded Clanrat with his [Rapscallion Wave Blade], finishing it off before chopping at a spear that came at him from the other side. Fighting against polearm weapons like this was seriously hard. He had to dodge or block every single blow with his swords or armguards to reduce the damage he took from the blows to less than 10 HP pet hit, which left him with few chances to attack. He did manage to make the occasional attack though, thanks to his longer arms and height, and the numbers of Clanrats thinned.

Once the last one fell, Issei was down seventy HP and facing the leader of the squad of ratmen, Vrrkin. Now that Issei had the chance to look at him closer, he wished he hadn't. His eyes were red and froth was spilling out of his ravening maw as he cackled.

"Man-thing foolish. You should have killed Vrrkin when you had the chance!" the ratman sneered, "Now you shall die on the Sword Eater!"

"That name is lame." Issei deadpanned.

With a shriek, the ratman lashed out with his sword, forcing Issei to parry it with his steel sword. He was glad he had done that with the ordinary sword rather than the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] as the muck that Vrrkin's sword excreted started eating into the blade, rusting it.

' _Crap!_ ' Was all Issei could think as he dodged and blocked with his rusting sword. He had to do something here! He couldn't lose his swords like this!

Just then he remembered something from when his father had the plumbers in a year ago…copper doesn't rust, it oxidises. If the only thing that sword did was make swords made of iron or an iron alloy rust, it should have no effect on his copper or bronze swords.

"[Observe]!" he hissed as he glared at the sword that was causing the problem.

 **[Sword Eater]**

 **A sword forged from the blood of five true innocents and enspelled with curses against iron. It is the bane of any sword forged of iron or an iron alloy and will rust it into nothing over an extended period of time.**

 **Standard Sword (Ratmen)**

 **Short Sword**

 **Slashing Damage: S+17**

 **Piercing Damage: S+20**

 **Special Effects: [Iron Corrosion], [Iron Alloy Corrosion]**

A very effective sword indeed. One might even go so far as to call it a counter-sword in modern times due to all swords, other than ceremonial swords, being forged of steel. Fortunately, Issei had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Disengaging slightly, he threw his steel sword into his inventory and drew out a bronze sword that he then used to block Vrrkin's next slash with [Sword Eater]. The surprise in the ratman's eyes when the bronze blade didn't start to rust was priceless.

"Now then…where were we?" Issei snarled. Pushing Vrrkin back, he stabbed the ratman in the leg with the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] before drawing back quickly so the rusting sword couldn't be employed against it.

It didn't really take long after that. With his trump card neutralised, it took only a few minutes for Vrrkin to fall, much to Issei's relief.

 **You have slain X8 [Clanrats]! You earn 1000 EXP!**

 **You have slain [Vrrkin, Clanrat Claw Leader]! You earn 200 EXP!**

 **[Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **As a result of repeated actions, you have learned the [Evasion] skill!**

 **[Evasion] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00 EXP]**

 **The ability to quickly move out of the way of attacks. Sometimes called dodging, it is nevertheless a valuable skill for a fighter of any stripe.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of avoiding ranged attacks by 10%.**

 **\- Passively raises the chance of avoiding close combat attacks by 12%.**

Issei nodded. That was some good skill levelling there. Surprisingly, [Lesser Draconic Charisma] levelled up as well. Was he being charismatic as he fought as well?

He looted the bodies and was pleasantly surprised by what he found.

 **X9 Average Ratman Spears**

 **X1 Sword Eater**

 **X9 Boiled Leather Armour**

 **X1 Leather Jerkin**

 **¥1053**

 **X1 Ryūjin Menpō**

 **X1 Skill Book (Unknown Skill)**

Other than the [Sword Eater], the Menpō and Skill book were the only things that interested him, but he kept the spears just in case. He did sell the leather items, which earned him another ¥500. Then he turned his attention to the other items.

The Ryūjin Menpō was red, just like his helmet, and had a snarling dragon's face on it, complete with bared fangs and glaring eyes. He used [Observe] on it.

 **[Ryūjin Menpō]**

 **A face mask cast in the image of the Dragon God of Japanese myth and legend. Made from Bloodmetal, it enhances the power of any offensive draconic ability the wearer possesses, as well as slightly enhancing the wearer's physical abilities and protecting the wearer's face.**

 **\- Provides an armour rating of 5 to the wearer's face.**

 **\- Can only be worn with a [Kabuto-style] helmet.**

 **\- Increases the effect of all [Draconic] offensive abilities by +5.**

 **\- Increases the user's STR, STA and DEX by 2 each.**

Carefully, Issei put it on and blinked. He could see _through_ the mask as if it was transparent, which was a relief. The reason he had been somewhat hesitant about wearing a mask was the possible loss of his peripheral vision, so this was a welcome revelation.

Then he turned his attention to the Skill Book.

 **[You have acquired the [Magic Weapon Reinforcement] Skill Book.]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Yes/No**

' _Sounds like a good idea. Meh. Might as well._ ' Issei thought as he hit the 'Yes' button.

 **Congratulations! You have learned the [Magic Weapon Reinforcement] skill!**

 **[Magic Weapon Reinforcement] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **A skill that almost every supernatural race that wields both magic and weapons at once learns, although the name and method differ slightly from race to race. The basic idea is to coat the user's weapons in magical energy to increase both the durability of the weapon and its attack power. For weapons with an edge, it also enhances the cutting and piercing power of the blade in addition to the regular power boost.**

 **\- Actively adds +10 to all weapons damage, regardless of type.**

 **\- Actively adds +10 to the durability of the weapon.**

 **\- In the case of bladed weapons, their [Piercing] and [Slashing] damage is increased by 10.**

 **\- Costs 15 MP to activate, then another 10 MP for every minute after that to maintain it.**

 **\- The skill can be forcibly deactivated by a strong enough blow.**

"OK, this is a _good_ skill." Issei grinned, "Now then, let's get out of this place."

The only way out of the room was the door on the opposite side to where he had entered, so Issei kicked it open and advanced into a long corridor that gently sloped up.

"Another game of 'dodge the doom wheels'?" he grumbled as he started up the path. As expected, the familiar rumbling sound of the wheel contraption came after a few minutes of climbing. Issei dodged to the side and barely avoided it. This corridor was narrower than the last one, so it passed less than an inch from his body. It reeked of rot and excrement, almost enough to make Issei throw up.

"Gross." Was all he could choke out as he fought down the impulse to vomit.

Dodging two more wheels, Issei made it to the top and was confronted by a large barred gate that led into what looked like another arena.

"Yippee, another arena trap." The Sekiryūtei grumbled sarcastically. He reached out and touched the gate and a window popped up.

 **[Please unequip all weapons before entering.]**

"You have got to be kidding!" Issei muttered in disbelief. Reluctantly, he placed both of his swords into the inventory and resolved to draw them as fast as he could when the boss appeared. When he touched the gate again, it sank into the ground smoothly, allowing him entrance.

The arena he walked into was similar to Farsqueaker's arena, except bigger and less rustic. The way into the audience was blocked by a shimmering force field and standing in a viewing box was a ratman.

Unlike Byral and Farsqueaker, this one was small, no higher than the middle of Issei's thigh. Swathed in robes, it was nevertheless obvious that this ratman had mechanical replacements for some of his limbs. The right arm was some kind of baroque weapon; the tail was merely implanted with a spike on the end of it and there was a bulky mechanical eye replacing the creature's original left eye.

"So…this is the man-thing that slew that musclehead Byral Warfang and that fat fool Farsqueaker…" the ratman said as he flicked a switch with one clawed finger. The rattle of the gate rising up behind him made Issei sigh. Another arena trap indeed.

"That would be me." He replied, crossing his arms, "And you are?"

"Teeksqueak, Master Warplock Engineer." The ratman replied, "And this arena, warrior, is your graveyard."

"What is going on here?!" a familiar voice shouted from behind Issei. He turned around to see Rias Gremory and the Occult Research Club arrayed around her.

"Tch. Devil things." Teeksqueak grumbled, "Kill-kill later. Red warrior first."

"Heiress Gremory, we meet again." Issei said with a nod. Thankfully, his voice-disguising pendent was still working.

"What is all this? Why are you killing these creatures?" the redheaded devil demanded.

"Because they must die if I am to live." Issei replied shortly, turning around to face Teeksqueak again, "The masters of the ratmen seek the death of all supernatural beings, including humans with magic al or spiritual powers."

"Yes-yes." The Warplock Engineer agreed, "Now red warrior must die-die."

"That's what Byral Warfang and Farsqueaker said as well." Issei snarked back, pointing at the ratman, "I killed Warfang and took his own sword from him as a prize, using it to kill Farsqueaker and his pet monster as well."

"Ah yes…Boneripper…" Teeksqueak purred silkily, "He wishes to say hello to you, red warrior."

The ratman flipped another switch and the large doors on one side of the arena yawed open, revealing a monstrosity that was only vaguely familiar to Issei.

"Boneripper…" he breathed.

The Rat Ogre that Issei had killed was now walking once again, but as a larger monstrosity than he had been. The flesh on its head was gone, leaving only a bare skull, its lifeless eye sockets full of blazing green fire. The tail that Issei had severed was replaced by a long sinuous length of metal that left scars on the arena floor as it advanced, and the arm that had been cut off as well had been replaced by two arms; one equipped with a set of razor-sharp talons and the other with what Issei recognised as a miniature Warpfire Thrower.

 **Boneripper Revived LV12**

 **[Experiment DFr455-12]**

There were horrified exclamations coming from the ORC behind him that he tried to ignore.

"What…is that thing?!"

"…feels wrong."

"My my…looks like I have quite the workload ahead of me." Issei sighed. He noticed a window pop up ahead of him.

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **Keep This Under Your Hat…: You face a powerful foe, in full view of Rias Gremory and her Peerage! Win this fight without using the power of the [Boosted Gear], keeping your identity a secret!**

 **Quest Reward: X2 levels added to [Boost!] Skill, Level Up, Random Piece of Armour, 2000 EXP.**

 **Quest Failure: Rias Gremory discovers your secret identity.**

 **Will you accept this quest?**

 **Yes/No**

Hastily hitting yes, Issei reached into the inventory, one hand on either side of him and drew out the [Rapscallion Wave Blade] and the Steel Short Sword.

"Well then, Boneripper!" he said, pointing his [Wave Blade] at the monstrosity, "I killed you once; let's see if I can go two-for-two!"

 _With Rias_

"Koneko-chan, break these bars down!" the Gremory Heiress ordered. She wasn't going to just stand back and let this boy get killed in front of her.

The Reincarnated Nekomata nodded, drew back one clenched fist and punched the bars, causing a barrier to appear between her fist and the bars before the petit girl was thrown back, looking frazzled.

"…electric barrier. Can't break it." Koneko reported.

"Akeno." Rias said tersely.

The former Nephilim studied the barrier for a moment before shaking her head. "I have never seen a barrier like this before, Buchou. It isn't Yōkai, Devil, Human or Fallen, and it certainly isn't a holy barrier of the Churches. I wouldn't even begin to guess how to go about unlocking it."

"I'll give it a go then." Rias said with a frown. She called upon her Power of Destruction and formed the Magic Circle of the Gremory before her, firing a strong blast of it at the barrier. One of the most feared and powerful magics in all of devilkind struck the barrier, struggled against it for a long moment and then fizzled out as if it were just a firework.

"What the…?!" This had never happened to her before. Sure, her magic was a pale shadow of what her mother and brother's, but it was less like the magic was negated or blocked and more like it had been…erased.

She was distracted by the monstrosity –Boneripper, the two in the other chamber had called it- roaring as it loped forward with deceptive slowness at the red-cloaked warrior. The boy (she was certain it was a male) stood in a relaxed stance, awaiting his enemy to come within striking distance.

With another roar, the monster swiped at the warrior with its remaining original upper limb at lightning speed, much faster than one would believe from a creature of such bulk. The warrior leapt back and lashed out with his swords, scoring a long pair of wounds down the appendage. What was odd was that only a small trickle of black liquid emerged from the wounds.

"I see." The warrior said in that flat and emotionless voice, "You didn't _revive_ Boneripper; you _reanimated_ it as a flesh puppet of sorts. A flesh _golem_ would be the more appropriate term, I believe."

"Yes-yes!" the ratman sitting above the arena chittered, "Much better now it has no mind; all the better to control it! Warpstone core and Warpfire Thrower means you are dead, man-thing!"

"Alternatively, it means that it relies on being controlled from somewhere else." The warrior pointed out as Boneripper slowly withdrew its claw, "Meaning that it takes a while for the orders to be issued."

With that, the duel-wielding human charged in and started to slice away at the body of the beast, leaving behind long scores down its flank. He leapt away when the long tail lashed out at him in return, gouging out a long chunk of stone from the ground where he had been standing.

"Yuuto, can [Sword Birth] bypass the barrier to help that boy?" Rias asked. There was no way the warrior was going to defeat that monster with just two ordinary steel swords!

The blond boy concentrated before rubbing his temples. "Sorry Buchou. Looks like this barrier blocks the effects of Sacred Gears trying to materialise inside it from outside."

It was not often that Rias Gremory felt powerless in any situation. Before this, the only situation she had been helpless in was that ridiculous engagement her father had forced on her with that sleezeball, Riser Phenex. She was still all but powerless to do anything about it, and this situation was making her more frustrated. All she could do was watch and ponder on the warrior's words from before the fight started.

' _Destroy all supernaturals…that must be a joke._ ' She thought, ' _That implies that ordinary humans who wish to do it, which is impossible._ '

To any supernatural, even human magicians, that was the logic. The non-magical portion of humanity might have their guns and the like, but with the fact that the supernaturals had their own hidey-holes to flee to in case of an emergency, plus the fact that they had abilities that far surpassed that of regular humans, there wasn't much that could be done to them. Unless it was a completely sudden surprise attack…

Rias' mind –and her blood- stopped cold. Before this human started trashing the lairs of these ratmen, both she and Sona had been completely in the dark about the existence of them. Had they had more time to prepare, the ratmen would have swarmed over their Peerages when they were most vulnerable, in their homes, separated and split apart from one another.

If there were other ratman nests in other places where there were devils…!

She made a note to inform her brother about the possibility before returning her attention to the fight.

 _Back with Issei…_

As Issei dodged another lashing from the zombie rat ogre's whip-tail, he wondered when things had started going down the toilet. A rat ogre, he could deal with. An enhanced rat ogre, sure it was tough, but manageable. A flesh golem rat ogre though?

When he had used **[Observe]** on Boneripper 2.0, this was what he'd seen.

 **Name: Boneripper Revived**

 **Title: Experiment DFr455-12**

 **Species: Flesh Golem (Former Enhanced Rat Ogre)**

 **HP: 1970/2000**

 **MP: 0/0**

 **STR: 75 (+25)**

 **STA: 100 (+25)**

 **DEX: 60 (+25)**

 **INT: 1 (-11)**

 **WIS: 0**

 **LUK: 0**

 **Special Status: Feel No Pain (Is immune to any and all forms of pain), Order Me (Cannot move without orders from its controller), Leather Skin (Skin naturally thick and tough, providing +15 armour against bladed weapons).**

He was pretty certain that the [Leather Skin] part was a result of experiments by the Warplock Engineer. Ditto for the [Order Me] and [Feel No Pain] bits. What was with the ridiculously high strength and stamina?!

' _Hold on…you have a way to up your attacks, dumbass!_ ' Issei thought, feeling like an idiot. He muttered, " **[Magic Weapon Enhancement]** "

Red light wrapped around his swords and he grinned. Blocking the swipe of another claw with the steel sword, he slammed the blade of his other sword down on the wrist section, cutting right through it, which unleashed a large gout of black blood.

 **You have severed a limb from Boneripper! Due to his status as a Flesh Golem, he does not suffer from any [Bleeding] effects!**

"Oh c'mon! He's bleeding right there!"

Ignoring his complaint, Boneripper lashed out again with his tail, forcing Issei to dodge. He disengaged the flow of magic to his weapons and tried a different tact.

" **[Earth Shot]!** "

The earth bullet slammed into the skull of Boneripper, shattering it into pieces.

 **Boneripper has lost its head! As it is a Flesh Golem, it has no effect!**

"Ok, _fine_. Looks like I'm going to have to chop you into pieces to put a stop to you!" Issei grunted in annoyance. Once more activating [Magic Weapon Enhancement], he charged forward.

Unleashing a silent roar that shook the arena to its foundations, the flesh golem thrust its Warpfire Thrower in his direction, a fearful green light appearing in the muzzle.

" **[Lesser Barrier Shield]!** " Issei gasped out, raising the magic shield just in time to block the outrush of emerald green flames that erupted from the small flamethrower. He paled as cracks appeared over the shield and hastily threw up a second barrier behind the first. The first barrier shattered as its durability was lowered to zero and the durability of the second fell quickly, but held out long enough for the flames to die down.

Dismissing the shield, Issei noticed that a port in the Warpfire Thrower opened up and ejected a cartridge of some sort. A cartridge system flamethrower? How did they…? Ah, of course. Magical compression.

Moving into the attack, Issei slammed his glowing swords into Boneripper and drew them out diagonally, leaving huge rents in the dead flesh of the former rat ogre's chest.

"What are you fools doing?! Kill him!" Teeksqueak demanded. Presumably into a communications device of some sort. Looks like the fact that the Warpfire Thrower didn't kill him worried the ratman.

Good.

After he sliced some more flesh from the Flesh Golem's chest, a large patch fell off, revealing a large glowing green sphere that pulsed like a heart. It was clearly made of Warpstone and Issei retreated swiftly. He didn't want to be near that thing.

"Fools-fools! He's exposed the [Golem Core]!" the Warplock Engineer shrieked, "Kill him now!"

"[ **Earth Shot]!** " Issei snarled, " **[Earth Shot]!** "

The two earthen bullets slammed into the core one after another, the first causing a small crack in the core, while the second widened it considerably.

 **Critical Hit!**

Boneripper staggered back and started twitching spasmodically, its limbs completely out of control.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT ISN'T RESPONDING?!" Teeksqueak roared, "Control it and kill the man-thing immediately!"

Using this time to reach into his inventory, Issei grabbed the last MP Potion and chugged it down, restoring his reserves. Throwing the bottle to one side, he fired two more [Earth Shots] at the core, the last one shattering it into pieces.

The pieces started to glow a frighteningly bright colour of green and Issei instinctively threw up a barrier as the fragments of Warpstone exploded. The wave of energy released by the explosion was blocked by the barrier before dispersing. Boneripper, ripped asunder by the explosion, collapsed to the ground, well and truly dead.

The ratman sitting in the box, knocked off his pedestal of arrogance and superiority, gaped at the remains of his flesh golem before glaring at Issei, his artificial eye blazing red with his rage.

"You…!" Teeksqueak growled from his box, "You will _pay_ for this humiliation! Not today, but you _will_ pay for it!"

With that, the Warplock Engineer turned and left the box, vanishing into the darkness away from the braziers that lit the arena.

"That's a first." Issei commented in surprise. Both Byral and Farsqueaker had come to challenge him after overcoming their guards and challenges. Could this be the often heard of 'nemesis appearance' portion of RPG's?

Ignoring the windows around him, he turned around to look at Rias Gremory and her…what had the [Gamer] called them? Her 'Peerage'? All of them looked astonished.

"I would advise that once I am gone, you not touch any remaining fragments of Warpstone that remain." He informed her gruffly, "They are both toxic and have a mutagenic effect on people and their minds. Take some to study, if you must, but do not touch any of them with your bare hands or breathe in any dust. I must bid you farewell again, Heiress Gremory."

"Wait." Rias' voice was unusually hesitant, "I must…apologise to you for how I acted when last we spoke. I had just received some bad news and was in a bit of a temper as a result. I had no right to take it out on you."

Issei paused. "Apology accepted. I took no offense to it, but it was quite a surprise to discover that there are devils in Kuō. I am human and had no idea about the supernatural before a short time ago. And at the moment, my attention is consumed by eliminating these ratmen. We will speak again once they have been removed from the board."

With that, he left using the large doors Boneripper had entered, the heavy steel doors clanging shut behind him. Then he checked the message windows that had been popping up since Boneripper died.

 **[Quest Complete!]**

 **Keep This Under Your Hat…: Complete! You successfully defeated the Flesh Golem [Boneripper Revived] without summoning your [Boosted Gear], keeping your identity as this generation's Sekiryūtei a secret from Rias Gremory and her Peerage!**

 **Quest Reward:** **X2 levels added to [Boost!] Skill, Level Up, [Bloodmetal Greaves], 2000 EXP.**

 **You have levelled up! LV9-LV10!**

 **You have 5 Attribute Points to spend.**

 **[Boost!] Skill has levelled up! LV2-LV4!**

 **You have defeated [Boneripper Revived]! You gain 1350 EXP!**

 **[Earth Magic] skill has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Earth Shot] skill has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Defensive Magic] skill has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Lesser Barrier Shield] skill has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Evade] skill has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Ambidextrous] skill has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

Issei had to whistle at that. Fighting against a boss monster with Level 1 skills was a really good way to level them up. He made a note to find a supply of knives so he could practice his [Knife Throwing] skill.

Looking around the large pen where Boneripper had been kept, he spotted a ladder leading to a higher platform, so he climbed up it and followed it until he came to a stone door that slid aside at his touch.

As expected, this led to a small room with a desk and a single letter sitting atop it. Issei grabbed it and had a look at it.

' _To the Head of Project Rat King_

 _The council is duly impressed with the latest mutations and subspecies created by your project team. What we are concerned with, however, is the increasing sense of individuality and independence that the ratmen are showing due to the influence of the experimental substance dubbed 'Warpstone' by the ratmen. The techno-sorcery that some individual ratmen have been able to create using Warpstone as a base is a grave concern also, as it is not our intention to eliminate one set of supernaturals only to have a new set of our own creation rise up in their place._

 _You are hereby given notice that a new project, Project Rat Poison, has been formed and you are directed to send all data on all existing ratmen to them at once. Please be assured that it is not the council's intent to blame you or your team for this series of events. It is understood that this was a spontaneous series of happenstances that could not be predicted on your part._

 _However._

 _From here on out, you are to cease all experimentation in creating new breeds of ratmen, effective immediately. You may train some for specialised roles, but no experimentation or splicing. The excess budget for experimentation is still yours to use for other aspects of the project._

 _For the Purity and Sanctity of Our Souls._ '

"That's what you get for playing god." Issei muttered as he tucked the memo into his inventory.

The way out was similar to the previous lairs, so Issei just unequipped his combat load-out and cleaned himself off with [Cleansing] before heading home, satisfied with his efforts for the day.

 _Later_

 _Unknown Location_

Issei woke to find himself floating in an void that was filled with flames. This confused him as he last remembered dozing off in his bed after having dinner and a bath.

Suddenly, a gigantic crimson red dragon emerged from the flames. The dragon was enormous, easily bigger than the entire grounds of Kuō Academy. Its scaled hide shimmered in the light of the flames and its eyes glowed bright emerald green. Unlike the green of the Warpstone, however, the green light wasn't sickly or corrupt; rather, it was empowering and regal.

"S…Sekiryūtei…" Issei whispered in awe.

 **[Indeed!]** boomed the dragon in the same voice that the [Boosted Gear] used when announcing [Boost!] being used, except ten times louder, **[I am Ddraig, the Welsh Dragon, the Crimson Dragon Emperor and one of the Two Heavenly Dragons. I bid you greetings…my new partner!]**

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 **Next Chapter: An Interview with a Dragon Emperor**

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	6. Chapter 6

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 6: An Interview with a Dragon Emperor**

"Um…best regards?" Issei bowed slightly towards the immensely powerful dragon that dwelled inside his left hand.

 **[Polite.]** Ddraig remarked, **[There is no need to be, however. I am linked to you by the communication line you set up, so I can see through your eyes and view your memories.]**

The boy flushed in embarrassment.

 **[Hah! Now then, on to serious business…]** the Welsh Dragon said solemnly, **[These…Purifiers and the ratmen they have spawned. They are troublesome, but compared to some of the factions out there, they thus far seem to be barely worth the trouble to eliminate them.]**

"So you haven't heard of them before?" Issei asked curiously.

 **[My last host was a man twenty years ago and at the time, he was in touch with more than a few unsavoury types in the supernatural crime world.]** Ddraig replied as he flexed his wings idly, **[I had never heard of these Purifiers then, so I suspect that either they were a Japanese creation and were unknown to me, as my last host kept to America and Europe, or they never existed until sometime after my last host died.]**

"Huh." Issei looked thoughtful at that.

 **[The fact that they were planning on assailing the Gremory and Sitri Heiresses is troubling, as that would kick-start a war.]** The gigantic red dragon stated, **[Or rather** **re** **-start a war.]**

"What…do you mean?" Issei asked nervously.

 **[I suppose I** _ **had**_ **better tell you.]** Ddraig mused, **[Millennia ago, the Great War of the Three Factions between the God of the Bible and his Angels, Azazel and his Fallen Angels and the Four Maō, led by Lucifer, and Devilkind was waged. The casualties were horrendous; a full half of the Devils died, as did more than a few Angels and Fallen Angels. That was when two foolish dragons, who were fighting each other, entered the battlefield and were hit in the crossfire. One of those dragons was me, while the other was Albion, the Vanishing Dragon.]**

"The White Dragon Emperor." The human nodded in understanding.

 **[Yes. Sadly, we were both so wrapped up in our battle that we got very…** _ **angry**_ **when it seemed like someone was interfering in our fight.]** If it was possible for a dragon longer than a 747 to be sheepish, then that was how Ddraig looked at that moment, **[We roared 'how dare you interfere in our fight!' and started to tear into the armies of all three factions. This actually forced all three to set aside their differences and call a truce, as Albion and I are two of the Ten Strongest Beings in the world. We both fought hard and well, but against that number of foes, it was a forgone conclusion that we would lose. Once we did, the God of the Bible sealed our souls into the [Boosted Gear] and [Divine Dividing], sending us into the cycle of continuing our battle via using our wielders as proxies. After that, the war came to a halt for about a decade, barring minor skirmishes before renewing. After the Four Maō were slain in a coup by peace-seeking devils, a ceasefire was tacitly agreed upon by all three sides. No formal end to the hostilities has been declared.]**

"So wait…you mean after who knows _how_ long, they're still all technically at war?!" Issei sweatdropped at that, "What the heck?"

 **[There are many Fallen who cry out for vengeance for their dead comrades.]** Ddraig explained, **[Among the regular Angels, some are fanatics who desire the destruction of devils and their Fallen brethren. And there are those among devilkind, those who are either old and conservative or young and stupid, who wish to prove their race's superiority over the others. Should the Gremory and Sitri Heiresses die here, near where Fallen make their home, it will restart the Great War.]**

"That…would be bad." Issei managed.

 **[That is putting it mildly, Partner.]** The Red Dragon Emperor snorted **, [This Rias Gremory is likely the younger sister to the new Lucifer, Sirzechs Gremory, and Sona Sitri is likely the younger sister of Serafall Sitri, the new Maō Leviathan. From what I have heard, they love their family tremendously, and would bring their wrath down on the people responsible for their sister's deaths. They are also said to be far more powerful than their predecessors, which is saying something.]**

"Great." Issei said sarcastically, "And I assume from what you've been saying that the Fallen will be blamed if they die in a town that Devils and Fallen share, regardless of whether or not they had anything to do with it or not?"

 **[Just so.]** Ddraig nodded his massive head, **[The Three Factions are dry tinder; a single spark can set them alight. The ratmen in this city and their Purifier masters could act as such a spark. They must not be allowed to rekindle the flames of the Great War.]**

"Well I was already going to fight the Purifiers because they might try to kill me, so this just ups the stakes." Issei sighed.

 **[Good. Now, on to your second Sacred Gear.]** The red dragon said with narrowed eyes, **[You do realise that it is very, very rare to receive** _ **one**_ **Sacred Gear, let alone one of the Thirteen Longinus?]**

"The _what_ now? That sounds familiar for some reason…"

 **[The thirteen most powerful Sacred Gears in existence are known as the Thirteen Longinus.]** Ddraig explained, **[The one I am sealed inside of, the [Boosted Gear], is a mid-tier Longinus, meaning it is dead in the middle, just as the [Divine Dividing] is. The others are the [True Longinus], [Zenith Tempest], [Annihilation Maker], [Dimension Lost], [Regulus Nemea], [Canis Lykaon], [Sephiroth Graal], [Incinerate Anthem], [Absolute Demise], [Innovate Clear] and [Telos Karma]. Each of the Sacred Gears allows the user to, under the best circumstances, kill a god.]**

"Crap." Issei swore.

 **[The fact that you possess a** _ **second**_ **Sacred Gear is astonishing, as only a small handful have ever received two in the past, and even then, they were always low-level Sacred Gears, such as a [Twice Critical] and [Wind Fang].]** The dragon continued, **[Far more uncommon would be a rare Sacred Gear, such as [Blessing of the Priestess] or [Twilight Healing], being one of them. Possessing not only a Longinus but one of the [Gamer's Gears] as well means you are a frightening individual, Hyōdō Issei.]**

"Wait, so you know about my [Gamer's Gear]?" the Sekiryūtei asked.

 **[Naturally. Where do you think the concept of an RPG came from?]** Ddraig asked rhetorically, **[The wielder of Gaia's Gamer's Gear helped to create tabletop RPG's over forty years ago. Tartarus' wielder even helped, which is astonishing. Those two get on much worse than Albion and I do.]**

"So…Tartarus is in the orange one and I have Gaia in my one?" Issei asked, giving his right arm a dubious look.

 **[Imprisoning a Titan or Primordial takes the power of one or more of the most powerful of gods.]** Ddraig disagreed, [ **Especially when it's Gaia, the ever-present and all-knowing Titaness of Earth and Tartarus, the personification of the deepest section of the Greek Underworld, we are talking about. No one knows where Gaia is; all we do know is she isn't locked up with the rest of the Titans. And Tartarus is bound to the location which takes his name. Not even the God of the Bible would have been able to defeat and imprison those two. No, they have some form of consciousness within them, but none of the wielders have ever talked about what they are like.]**

"I haven't heard of anything from it." Issei remarked, "Game on!"

In a flash, the [Gamer's Gear] appeared on his arm. One thing different about it immediately was that it had two lines of light on it. One was red and had a '10' at the bottom, leading him to deduce that it was an indication of his current level. It was a third of the way up the gauge.

The second line was sapphire blue and had a '1' at the bottom of it. It was a bare millimetre from the top of the gauge.

 **[What in the stars…?!]** Ddraig growled. Issei looked up and saw a blue gauntlet-like object on the Welsh Dragon's right foreleg that looked just like the [Gamer's Gear].

Experimentally, Issei dismissed and re-summoned the [Gamer's Gear] a couple of times. The blue armour on Ddraig's foreleg vanished and reappeared as his own did.

"Looks like the [Gamer's Gear] is on you too." he remarked.

Ddraig muttered something and a screen popped up. **[Level 564?! Ridiculous!]**

Issei deadpanned at the dragon. "Ddraig, you're over fifty times my level."

 **[I am also one of the Ten Strongest…or at least I was…ah!]** The dragon looked annoyed, **[As I thought. Being killed and imprisoned in this Sacred Gear has cut my level to about a third of what it was. That thrice-accursed God of the Bible!]**

The Sekiryūtei deadpanned again. Ddraig's original level was…1692? That was _so_ broken.

 **[Hmm…looks as if I can set quests for you.]** The dragon mused as he waved his taloned claw through screens, **[That actually seems to be the reason for me being linked to you with this thing. I can't actually get stronger, but once you complete a certain number of quests, the [Boosted Gear] will automatically upgrade to its next form.]**

"How many forms does it have?" Issei asked curiously.

 **[Including the current [Twice Critical] form…three gauntlet forms.]** Ddraig replied, **[Then there's the [Balance Breaker] form.]**

"Balance Breaker? What the heck's that?"

 **[A bug in the Sacred Gear system created by the God of the Bible. When someone with a Sacred Gear feels heightened emotions and a change in their spirit, the [Balance Breaker] is unlocked.]** The dragon explained, **[Most Sacred Gears have a standard [Balance Breaker], but some wielders unintentionally create unique versions known as [Sub-Species Balance Breakers]. They are usually at least broadly similar to the original [Balance Breaker], but often have differences in power, appearance and execution.]**

"Cool. So what's the [Boosted Gear's] [Balance Breaker]?"

 **[It's referred to as the [Boosted Gear Scale Mail], a suit of armour that vastly increases your strength, allows for flight and can absorb the force of a tank shell if needed.]** Ddraig replied, **[It is the only [Balance Breaker] the [Boosted Gear] has ever had and all my partners have ever needed to face the White One in combat.]**

"It sounds kick-ass!" Issei said with a grin.

 **[It is, rather.]** Ddraig replied proudly, **[Now, according to what I'm reading here, you come here when you turn Level 10, followed by Level 15 after that until you become Level 20. At that point, we will be able to communicate directly without using dreams as a medium.]**

Issei nodded at that.

 **[Looks like our time is almost up.]** Ddraig pointed at the encroaching darkness, **[So then, I'll give you a quest…Dragons need a place to live. A cave, an eyrie, whatever works. In that trend, my hosts, as well as Albion's, usually create a base or home where they create stores of wealth and other resources. You must find or create a suitable lair for the Sekiryūtei!]**

 **[Quest Alert!]**

 **Here be the Dragon's Den…: The Welsh Dragon, Ddraig, has charged you with creating a suitable lair for your status as the Sekiryūtei. You must accomplish this before you turn LV20.**

 **Quest Rewards: +3000 EXP, ¥10000, Special Status [Blessing of the Dragon Emperor], +5 AP.**

 **Quest Failure: +5 AP**

 **Accept?**

 **Y/N**

Hitting 'Y', Issei saluted the dragon, who watched in amusement.

"On it."

 _That Night_

 _Rias Gremory's Home_

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about, Rias?" Sone Sitri asked as she moved a pawn forward. The two Heiresses were old friends and the bespectacled devil liked to think that she knew her crimson-haired contemporary as well as anyone. Rias was barely concentrating on the game, which was irritating as Rias was still doing a pretty good job of beating back her assault.

"Sona…we might be in trouble." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess said with a troubled sigh.

This made Sona raise an eyebrow inquisitively. It was then that Rias told her of the ratmen infestation that had snuck into Kuō, right under their noses, and what the likely targets for an attack by them would be.

"Son of a bitch." She swore, quite out of character for the usually cool and in-control genius of the Sitri Family, but realising that someone had been planning on murdering her and her entire Peerage, along with her best friend and _her_ Peerage tended to do that to a girl.

"My sentiments exactly." Rias said with a haunted look in her eyes, "And we'd _still_ be unaware of it if this human hadn't started going after them."

"Yes, Akeno told me about you turning up the heat on them." Sona said dryly.

To give her credit, the other devil blushed in shame and embarrassment.

"I had just started my period, which always makes my bitch-switch go up to eleven." She said in irritation at her body's actions, "I did apologise the third time we met and he accepted it. He was very wooden though."

"Bad acting?" the other devil asked.

"I think so. He was trying to act tough, but came off as a robot." Rias said thoughtfully, "I think he knows me somehow and was afraid I could recognise him by the way he speaks or something."

"Are you even certain he was a he?" Sona asked in a clipped, business-like fashion, "And didn't you say he was wearing some sort of enchanted item that disguised his voice?"

"The way he stood and acted was definitely male." Rias said with certainty, "Plus his body shape was male. Yes, he had some kind of voice disguiser, but it just made him sound monotone and inflectionless, with a bit of decibel altering as well, but it was still definitely male."

"So…what? Are you thinking about possibly recruiting him into your Peerage to help you against Raiser?" Sona asked shrewdly. She had little respect for the Phenex Scion; he was arrogant, rude, lascivious, lazy and sexist. That Rias was forcibly engaged to him left a sour taste in her mouth.

"…I don't know." Rias admitted after a moment, "I _need_ a game changer; something that Raiser doesn't expect and takes him off guard. Just any random person wouldn't be able to help."

Sona frowned at the defeated tone in her usually confident friend's voice. She knew the likelihood of Rias getting out of the marriage with Raiser Phenex to be abyssal at worst and just slightly short of impossible at best, but she had never voiced her lack of confidence like this.

"Members of the Phenex Family have been defeated before, Rias." She said bracingly.

"Usually when the Rating Game isn't about pure power." The Gremory Heiress pointed out, "I may be getting a Rating Game, but it will be skewed in favour of Raiser's superior strength and experience. It won't be a Game where we have to steal something from the opposition or take and hold territory for a certain amount of time; it will be one where I have to defeat Raiser and his Peerage to the last man."

Sona winced. Technically, she only had to defeat Raiser, as when a [King] fell, the Rating Game was lost, but as he had a full Peerage compared to Rias' [Queen], [Knight], [Rook] and unstable [Bishop] in addition to herself, that was unlikely. There was no mistaking it; Rias was being strong-armed into marry Raiser Phenex and even this Rating Game was an illusion designed to give her the semblance of hope before stripping it from her.

Likely it had been her brother, Sirzechs, who had forced the Rating Game portion of the contract in in an attempt to help his sister, but she needed help. Ordinarily, Sona wouldn't consider loaning any other devil members of her Peerage, but Rias had been her friend since they had been in their nappies and she was in serious trouble.

The only things that stopped her were Rias' own pride and subtle threats given to her from Raiser. The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess was determined to succeed or fail by her own efforts alone, which was making Sona's headache worse. Raiser, as he had known about how close she and Rias were, had blatantly told her that if she interfered, several of her Family's businesses would suffer, in both the Underworld and the Human World.

Ordinarily, she'd just let her older sister turn the arrogant fop into an ice sculpture, but that would probably kick off another civil war, which was not what the devils needed at the moment. Even with thousands of years of taking in humans and converting them using the Evil Piece System, their population was too low to sustain another all-out conflict.

"…do you want me to give you the update you asked for now or wait until later?" she asked, not-so-subtly changing the subject.

"Better hit me with it now." Rias sighed. She had asked Sona to check the students to see if they had any Sacred Gears or supernatural origins or…anything that might be of some use.

Needless to say, she was not holding any hopes.

"Katase and Murayama of the Girls Kendo Club have shown some degree of spiritual power, which I traced back to them being from Shinto Exorcist families." Sona started, "It would explain why the Perverted Trio haven't had much luck peeping on them. The new member of the Student Council -sorry Rias- has a Sacred Gear, but we aren't certain what kind other than a Dragon-type, which could be anything from a [Twice Critical] up. Other than that, only Hyōdō Issei has shown any kind of Sacred Gear reaction."

She had wrinkled her nose in distaste when she brought up the three biggest perverts in the school. Their constant peeking and perversity gave her more work than she wanted.

"Oh come on, Sona!" Rias actually smiled when she grumbled about them, "I find them refreshingly honest. They may be perverted, but at least they aren't as…arrogant about it as Raiser is with his damned harem. So what made Hyōdō-kun come up on your radar?"

Sona relayed the incident at the Hyōdō Residence to her friend, who scowled at the report.

"Threatening them in their own home…how low can you go?"

"I agree. The main issue is that the perpetrator was murdered, brutally, in police custody." Sona shuddered, "He had his eyes, teeth, hands and feet removed… _while he was still alive_ and left to bleed to death. It wasn't Hyōdō Issei; he was seen with his parents at the hospital getting the knife cut on his face treated at the estimated time of the torture/murder, so someone _else_ tracked the assailant down and killed him, removing all easy ways to identify him as they did so."

"My word." Rias wasn't unfamiliar with death; one of the duties of both her Peerage and Sona's was to hunt down and eliminate Stray Devils, reincarnated humans who had killed their master in the pursuit of power, within the Kuō city limits. In her time here, she had slain over a dozen with her Power of Destruction, yet those had been clean, painless (for a given value of painless) kills. What Sona had just described was…horrific. It was the sort of thing that the Old Maō Faction would have done casually.

"I've investigated his family, but Hyōdō has no spiritualist ancestors." Sona continued, "He is of lineal descent of a _very_ minor samurai family on his mother's side and utterly boring and unimpressive merchants on his father's side. This is going back 400 years, mind you."

"Hmm…" Rias tapped the table with one hand before moving a bishop to counter Sona's last move, "Any indications of what kind of Sacred Gear he has?"

"Yes and no." Sona admitted in frustration. In part from the results of her investigation and in part due to Rias' move threatening her Queen. "Initially, he was tentatively earmarked as having a Dragon-type Sacred Gear, which would make sense given the fact that Saji-kun is here. Dragons attract other dragons after all. But then, the day after the assault in his home, the readings went…awry."

"Awry?" Rias raised one delicate eyebrow at that. Sona was a perfectionist with most things, but especially with investigating things like this. For her to be stymied like this was very odd.

"Awry." The Sitri Heiress confirmed with a moue of frustration, "His readings are now even more Dragon, indicating he awoke his Sacred Gear as a result of the attack, but now there are all these odd signals all over the place. I can't pin down what they could be!"

Scowling at her inability to analyse Hyōdō Issei, Sona pouted. The Gremory Heiress smirked fondly at her friend. It was good for her to not instantly be able to accomplish something, even better if she came across a hurdle that stopped her cold like this had.

"The teachers didn't believe that he was attacked, despite the knife cut on his face." Sona said as she shook her head, dispelling her irritation, "They've called for a parent/teacher meeting with his parents."

This made Rias scowl. "Idiots. That kind of pig-headedness is ridiculous."

"I expect they think he got it from peeping on a girl or something." Sona shrugged. It wasn't a bad deduction, considering Hyōdō Issei's actions towards the opposite sex, but to dismiss something like that out of hand, without confirming it, was unprofessional and disgusting.

"I'll let Onii-sama know about the need to possibly replace the teachers in question." Rias said decisively, "If they do this to one person, they might do it to more."

"Agreed. I'll leave that to you." Sona nodded. It was the Maō who owned Kuō Academy through proxies and were the board of directors. None of them would be amused by the teachers' actions.

"Yes, we wouldn't want Serafall-sama to go nuts and destroy the school with a wave of her staff." Rias smirked again when Sona shuddered. The short-haired Sitri loved her older sister to pieces, but Serafall was practically on the edge of incest with her love for Sona and had threatened on several occasions to turn Japan into an icy tundra with her powerful Ice Magic when she had heard of Sona being upset about something.

"Thank you so much for reminding me of that." Sona said sourly, "Why am I helping you again?"

"Because we're best friends, So-so." Rias used her nickname for Sona from when they were both kids, making the usually stern and uptight girl blush like a tomato.

"…shut up, Ria." She muttered half-heartedly.

The redhead's smile became genuine as she heard her own nickname, mostly used by her brother and father these days, which Sona had given her as a child.

"What do you want to do about Hyōdō-kun?" Sona asked once she regained her composure.

"For the moment, nothing." Rias decided, "He has too much to deal with at the moment with the teachers being idiots. There are still a couple of months before the engagement becomes critical, so I can recruit him sometime in that timeframe."

Sona sighed. "You really are too nice, Rias."

"I _am_ a Gremory." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess shrugged indifferently.

"Let's get this game over with." The Sitri Heiress sighed, "We _do_ have school tomorrow, after all."

"It's your move." Rias shot at her with a smile.

The two friends continued their chess game, leaving such heavy topics as they had been discussing to one side for the night.

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 _Two Days Later_

 _Outside Another Rat Den's Exit_

"Jeez, that was ridiculous!" Issei muttered as he removed his armour and stored his swords, "And I didn't even level up!"

Over the last couple of days, he had raided two more Rat Dens, including this one, and had conquered them both. Neither had been hard for him and had actually scored him some nice loot and cash, if not nice EXP.

First, there was the armour he had received for fighting [Boneripper Revived] without the aid of the [Boosted Gear].

 **[Bloodmetal Greaves]**

 **A set of greaves forged of Bloodmetal, they enhance the effect of any supplementary draconic ability (i.e. not one that can be used in combat) that the user possesses.**

 **Light Armour**

 **\- Grants an armour value of 15 to all covered locations.**

 **\- All Supplementary [Draconic] skills gain + 5 to all their effects.**

Oddly enough, after he received the [Bloodmetal Bracers], [Lesser Draconic Charisma] had the 'Supplementary' tag added to it. It was useful to know that his power was self-updating for new terms and categories.

The second useful piece of equipment was taken from the body of the boss from Den number four, which had held the title of [Burrow of the Rat Horde]. It had been packed with a bunch of Ratman Slaves and Clanrats, with the dungeon boss being a pair of [Clanrat Leaders]. The loot from them had been a useful little bangle.

 **[Bangle of Protection]**

 **A plain steel ring worn on the wrist. The underside is carved with various runes in Lesser Futhark that invoke protection from a wide variety of magic and physical attacks.**

 **Accessory**

 **\- Grants +20 Resistance to [Fire], [Water], [Ice], [Lightning], [Wind], [Light], [Holy] and [Demonic] Magic.**

 **\- Grants +20 Resistance to [Piercing], [Slashing] and [Bludgeoning] physical attacks.**

As it turned out, you could wear one accessory per arm and one around your neck. Quite why the [Eye of Obscurity] wasn't included in that count had eluded him until he realised that he had essentially made it a part of the [Cloak of Obfuscation], so it didn't count.

And finally, the last piece of equipment he had gathered up had been from the Den he had just cleared out, [Warren of the Detritus Rats]. It had been full of raw materials for making Warplock Jezails, Warpfire Throwers and Ratling Guns, with the [Ratman Porters] grabbing them and shooting at him enthusiastically, if haphazardly, if they spotted him.

On a related note, his [Ambushing] skill had levelled up a lot and he had acquired the [Backstab] and [Stealth] skills. The first just gave him bonus damage when he attacked an unaware enemy and also raised the chance of a critical hit when that happened, while the second increased the chance that he would remain unnoticed.

Anyway, the boss this time had been a [Warplock Engineer] like Teeksqueak, except with much less in the way of crude cybernetic enhancements. After getting hit a couple of times with green electric blasts, he had developed the [Shock Resistance] and [Pain Resistance] skills, which still meant that it hurt like hell. It was hard to say that the loot was worth it, but Issei decided to be magnanimous and say that it was.

 **[Bloodmetal Cuirass]**

 **A piece of armour designed to protect the chest and back of its wearer, it is made from Bloodmetal. It enhances the power of any defensive [Draconic] skill.**

 **Light Armour**

 **\- Grants 30 Armour.**

 **\- All defensive [Draconic] skills gain +5 to their effects.**

Given that there was no bonus for equipping what he assumed was all of the [Bloodmetal] series, Issei guessed that it wasn't a 'set' of armour. Ah well.

He'd better get back to his home. The parent-teacher conference was today and he'd been fortunate enough that his parents had told him he didn't have to come with them. He hadn't envied his teachers thanks to the rather angry glints in his mother's eyes. She was absolutely furious that the teachers hadn't even bothered to phone them about Issei's claims, let alone their assumptions that he had sexually assaulted someone!

It was, he reflected humorously, nice to see his mother ready to tear a strip off someone when it wasn't him on the receiving end of said tearing off!

As he wandered back to his home, he did have to wonder about how the hell he was going to find a place to set up as his base. None of the burrows he had unearthed were anything approaching satisfactory, thanks to all that Warpstone that the ratmen used for seemingly just about everything. No way did he want to spend any more time around that poisonous stuff than was absolutely necessary.

What to do? Overground bases were basically out, due to the fact that humans, especially teenaged humans, had a habit of using/exploring nearby easily accessible caves as either holy sites or for tests of courage. Buildings were out, as he had no way of buying property legally. This left finding underground bases, and thus far, as stated, none of them were up to snuff.

When Issei got home, he had dinner with his very satisfied mother and nervous father, who kept giving his wife semi-scared looks the entire time. He was informed that his teachers had been schooled in why you do not accuse someone of something without proof and he joined his father in being slightly wary of his mother. She reinforced something that Katase and Murayama had beaten into him every day.

Girls could be scary as hell.

After dinner and his homework, Issei sat back on his bed and thought his next move out. There were only a couple of dens left out of the list he had and then…what? None of the notes he had been finding on the way out of the dens had given any indication of the location of the base of the Purifiers. All the last two had had on them had been reports detailing the training that the rats had been given, with the more recent one asking about the possibility of a stealth unit.

Shelving the question, Issei opened his status window to see the results of his training and levelling.

 **Name: Hyōdō Issei**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 10| Next Level: 5400 EXP**

 **Title: Oppai Baka**

 **HP: 500/500**

 **MP: 325/325**

 **STR: 75**

 **STA: 71**

 **DEX: 81**

 **INT: 28**

 **WIS: 23**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: 43**

 **Attribute Points: 0**

 **¥: 43660**

"Well, damn." He said with a whistle. His physical stats were, quite simply, insane. The Kendo club were so far behind it wasn't even funny. He _still_ hadn't been able to get a reading on Rias Gremory, although he had tried. His [Observe] skill was at level 20 right now and it was still getting question marks for all her stats, even her health. Her level had jumped up to Level 43 in just this week. What the hell was she doing to boost her EXP gain?!

Closing the window, Issei got out of his bed and headed to take his shower before heading to bed. He had a lot of work left to do.

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 **Next Chapter: Falling in the Gutter**

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	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: So then, welcome to the very first scheduled chapter of Issei: The Gaming Gear! I would have uploaded it sooner, but if you've been reading all of the chapters I've posted for my other stories in the last few weeks, you'll know why I've been delayed. No point going over old ground.**

 **For those who have been complaining about the lack of any enemies aside from ratmen, take heart. The current 'Ratman Prequel Arc' is going to end in another two chapters and then the actual DXD arcs will start. Plus this will open other dungeons for Issei to tackle. Enjoy.**

 **Check my Profile for my writing schedule.** _ **Before**_ **you PM me or ask me in a review!**

 **Read, review and check out my other stories.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!] -** Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Beta'd by BigCC and Harutora75**

 **Chapter 7: Falling in the Gutter**

 _The Next Day_

 _Hyōdō Residence_

"Morning, Otou-san." Issei said as he walked into the kitchen, "You look like hell."

"Thanks." His father grumbled tiredly, "I've been called in early every day this week; it's ridiculous. So many people are down with some bug or another!" he shot his son a look. "Issei, make sure you don't catch any funny colds or whatever at school. That's the last thing I'll need!"

' _I_ _don't think you'll have to worry about that, Otou-san._ ' Issei thought as a small sweatdrop flowed down the back of his neck. He hadn't felt at any less than a hundred percent perfect health since he'd first gotten the **[Gaming Gear]** and **[Boosted Gear]**. The worse he'd felt is exhausted after some of the harder dungeons and even that had disappeared completely after 8 hours of sleep.

Of course, there was still the issue about finding a 'suitable lair' to use. He still had ten more levels to go before he ran out of time, but that was hardly an excuse. The best plan would be to find whatever base the Purifiers had and take that from them. Issei considered that it would be ironic enough to be suitable…and Ddraig would probably be amused by it as well.

Dragons were supposed to have big egos right?

If the Rat Dens in Kuō were under the control of the Purifiers, as all the evidence pointed to, then there had to be clues in the remaining dens that might lead him to the location of the Purifiers' main base, or at least the location of their Japanese branch's base.

 **[By creating a chain of logic that actually makes sense, you gain +1 WIS!]**

Grrr!

Ignoring his increasingly snarky and sarcastic gaming power, Issei tucked into breakfast. His mother was washing up the dishes when she spoke up, a smile on her face.

"Issei, the teachers have been educated about why they were wrong to jump to conclusions, but if they do so again, just let me know and I'll give them a remedial lesson."

"Y-yes, Okaa-san." Issei gulped. Man, hell hath no fury like a mother protecting her kids!

 **[…agreed. You receive +1 INT for being smart enough to realise this.]**

Issei felt a tick mark start to emerge on his forehead at this. Either his gamer power was scared of his mother or it was once again mocking him. He wasn't sure which was more preferable in this situation.

 _Later_

 _In the Middle of Class, Issei's Classroom, Kuō Academy_

 ***Ding-Dang-Dong!***

"Hyōdō Issei-kun, please report to the Student Council Office? I repeat, Hyōdō Issei-kun, please report to the Student Council Office."

Almost at once, the suspicious gazes of the class settled on aforementioned boy, who winced at the stabbing sensation of their glares.

"Oppai-baka!" Katase growled, "What did you do now?!"

"I haven't done anything!" Issei protested.

"A likely story." Murayama snorted.

"I'm serious! Have I ever denied doing ecchi things when I actually did them before now?!" Issei said proudly.

That actually got the class thinking. The correct answer was 'no' in their minds. He had only ever denied doing perverted things when he hadn't done anything, such as a couple of times in the last few days where he had been nowhere near the other two members of the Perverted Trio when they had peeked in at the girls changing.

"Hyōdō-kun, you'd better get going." The teacher called, "You wouldn't want to make Kaichou angry at you."

Issei shuddered. No, he certainly didn't want to make Sona Sitri, as her real name was, mad at him. No sir, he did not want a powerful Devil princess angry at him.

Heading to the Student Council Office, he knocked on the door politely.

"Hello, it's Hyōdō Issei…"

"Please come in." a familiar voice said. Opening the door, he saw that Sona was sitting at the head of the large table that took up quite a bit of space in the room.

 **Sona Sitri LV45**

 **[Heiress of the House of Sitri/Kuō Academy Student Council President]**

Seriously? What the hell were these Devil girls doing that had their levels shoot up so fast?! And at such high levels as well!

"How can I help you, Shitori-kaichou?" he asked, keeping his face straight with some effort.

"It is my understanding that the teachers recently disbelieved your story of the incident you suffered recently." Sōna said icily, her sharp eyes lancing right through Issei like lasers, "Your mother… _corrected_ …their views, but did not go into details. I would like to hear your view on the matter."

"Why?" Issei asked.

"If there is a chance that this person had…colleagues…, then as Student Council President, I must warn the students to be careful and watch out for strange men." She explained, "And the report that your mother gave was…lacking in details."

"Kaa-san was scared out of her wits." Issei sighed, "Damn that man. OK, just…this goes no further than us, and maybe the Vice-President."

"I can agree to that." Sōna nodded, "Take a seat and begin in your own time."

Doing so, Issei told her about the incident with the Purifier Outcast in detail, leaving out the name of the guy, as there should be no way he could know it, and of course omitting his dual Sacred Gear activation.

"That was…quite the ordeal you went through, Hyōdō-kun." The Devil said once he finished, "It was also very reckless of you to attack him like that. Brave as well, but mostly reckless."

"He was going to kill me if I didn't do anything, so I figured I may as well try to resist." Issei shrugged. An idea struck him. This could be a way to warn the Devils about the Purifiers and their targets without exposing himself.

"I think the guy was more than a little unstable in the head, Kaichou." he confessed, "He was ranting while he held us captive and he was going on about Devils and Fallen Angels and regular Angels as if they were real or something."

A twitch of an eyebrow was all the non-verbal reaction Sona gave at this. "Oh?"

"Yeah. He kept monologing that he wanted to kill all of them." The Sekiryūtei said with an exaggerated eye roll as if to say, 'can you believe him?', "He also didn't like people with special powers, like exorcists or witches. I'd have called him a fanatical Christian, except for the fact he wanted to kill regular angels and exorcists too."

Sona's control over her facial expression was very impressive; the only physical reaction she gave to this was a slight widening of the eyes.

"And there was something else…" he pulled a face that showed he was trying to remember something, "Yeah…people who had…what was it? Holy Cogs? Something like that."

This had her narrow her eyes at him. "Holy Cogs? Are you sure?"

"I…can't be sure, Kaichou" Issei admitted sheepishly with a shrug, "It was around that time he started acting even more crazy and called someone up on his cell phone. He ranted at whoever it was on the other and ended it by saying 'F-ing Purifiers' or something along those lines."

"Purifiers…" Sona was lost in thought for a moment before she recalled he was still here, "Ahem. Thank you, Hyōdō-kun. I appreciate you talking about such a disturbing and traumatic incident with me. By the sounds of it, he was clearly mentally unstable and seemed to be acting alone, so there should be no need for anything more than a gentle admonishment to students to be aware of strangers following them home."

"Hai." He nodded, "Should I head back to class now?"

"Yes, please do. Once more, thank you for your assistance." Sona nodded.

Standing, up Issei left the room before bowing and closing the door. As he did, however, he also mumbled " **[Observe]!** " under his breath, which made a screen appear just as he slid the door shut.

 **Name: Sona Sitri**

 **Race: Pureblood Devil**

 **Class: King**

 **Level: 45| Next Level: ? EXP**

 **Title: Heiress of the House of Sitri/Kuō Academy Student Council President**

 **HP: ?-?-?/?-?-?**

 **MP: ?-?-?/?-?-?**

 **STR: ?**

 **STA: ?**

 **DEX: ?**

 **INT: ?**

 **WIS: ?**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: ?**

 **LD: ?**

 **Special Status: Pureblooded Devil (Passive) [+5 Attribute Point per Level, gains two points in stats for every AP spent], Devil Wings [Is allowed to fly], Joint Ruler of Kuō Town (Passive) [Has been assigned the duty of hunting Stray Devils in Kuō Town along with Rias Gremory], Devil's Temptation (Passive) [+20% to all [Charm] and [Persuade] actions], Genius (Passive) [INT stats start at double base value for Devils, gains +4 in INT for every AP spent in it].**

 **Perks: - Heiress of the House of Sitri**

 **\- Seduction from the Darkness**

 **\- Genius Intellect**

 **\- Kuō Academy Student Council President**

 **Flaws: - Light-Bane**

 **\- Holy Weakness**

 **\- Mild Pettanko**

 **\- Victim of a Sis-con Older Sister**

"O…kay?" Issei muttered as he headed away from the Student Council Offices and to the toilets. It would be a good excuse for why he was late back to class. As he studied the screen, he noticed he had two other screens popped up to his side, but he ignored them for the moment.

By and large, she had similar titles and special status to Rias Gremory, minus the 'Crimson Ruin' title. The first major difference was her **[Genius]** special status.

 **[Genius] (Passive)**

 **You are a rare diamond in the rough, possessing an intellect that allows you to learn bookwork at an almost frightening rate, as well as being able to learn magic or physical abilities very quickly, even for a Devil. You can also have multiple specialities based on what you focus on. This status, in addition to the normal addition listed, grants you the [Genius Intellect] perk, as well as a +30% EXP gain to the subject(s) of your choice.**

 **Current subject(s) chosen: Sitri Family Water Magic, Human School Subjects (Japan).**

Wh-whoa…that's kinda scary. Issei made a mental note to try and spend as little time around the Kaichou was he could as she was smart enough to guess he had a Sacred Gear pretty easily.

The **[Heiress of the House of Sitri]** perk was essentially the same as Rias Gremory's **[Heiress of the House of Gremory]** perk, just with the name changed. The next one Issei looked at was **[Genius Intellect]**.

 **[Genius Intellect] (Passive)**

 **You are a genius and are capable of making extremely complex calculations and deductions in your head. You gain a +25% chance to hit with ranged weapons and magic, along with +5% chance to CIT. You also gain a +20% chance to make a decisive leap in logic when attempting to make a deduction.**

Erk. This wasn't good…

Moving on, he next looked at the perk that she had presumably gotten when she was elected to the office of Student Council President, which basically raised her trust with the staff pretty high. It also gave her +10% to [Persuade] actions with staff and students.

Her flaws, aside from the standard Devil weaknesses to light and holy, were…bizarre.

 **[Mild Pettanko] (Passive)**

 **Someone who holds this perk has small breasts and is minorly worried and concerned about them. Ordinarily, this would result in a -10% to all Relationship gains with women with larger breasts than the holder or men who proclaim that they prefer large breasts, but the holder of this flaw has worked to expunge breast envy from herself. Therefore, the only people she does have a dislike to be people who proclaim that large breasts are better than small breasts. -15% relationship gains with such people.**

…this would explain why she was very…short…with him. Erk. It wasn't as if he dismissed small breasts…it was just that he liked big breasts more than small breasts. He was fond of small breasts as well though, and they suited Sona quite well in his opinion. He made a note to not expound about large breasts within Sona's hearing.

 **[Victim of a Sis-con Older Sister] (Passive)**

 **Although not through fault of her own, the person who holds this flaw has an older sister who loves her way too much and is most decidedly a Sis-con. This leads to a certain amount of embarrassment on the holder of this flaw's part when aforementioned older sister is around. +100% chance of suffering an epic-level blush as a result of the actions of her sister and an additional +75% chance of rumours spreading around about the sisters as a result of those actions.**

…what.

Seriously, what the hell?! Wasn't Sona Sitri's older sister Serafall Leviathan?! One of the new set of Maō?! And she was apparently a total sis-con! Holy crap, what the _hell_ was up with this flaw that she inflicted on her younger sister?! It wasn't even her fault, for Christ's sake!

…the effects of the flaw were funny though.

Issei sat on a toilet and crossed his arms thoughtfully. Nothing he was seeing here explained why Rias and Sona had such a ridiculous EXP gain. They had both gone up 3-4 levels apiece since he had first seen them, which wasn't even that long ago!

His eyes fell on Sona's class of [King]. This was the only thing that he hadn't checked out until now, so he shrugged and pressed it.

 **Devil Peerage System**

 **Background Flavour Text:**

 **With the tacit three-way truce between the Three Biblical Factions in place, the newly crowned Maō were left with a simple quandary; over half of the Devil population had been killed during the fighting with the other two factions and more had died during the Devil Civil War. This left them at less than a third of their pre-war population, and Devils do not conceive easily. In their lifetimes, which can easily be thousands of years depending on their strength, a Pureblooded Devil couple might only have two children, with a long, long time between each.**

 **It was the new Maō Beelzebub, Ajuka, formerly of the Astaroth Family, who conceived of the way forward. In addition to normal population increases, he advocated and created a way to reincarnate other beings, aside from gods and higher-tier dragons (Ophis and Great Red), into Devils. After some consideration and consultation with his peers, it was decided to also use this as a way to teach young devils, which are, as a general rule, arrogant and prideful, about combat situations without the risk of actually dying in combat.**

 **Based upon chess pieces, the newly coined [Evil Pieces] were designed to add a shadow factor into the beings they are inserted into, as well as a weakness to light. By any standards, they are Devils. Each [Evil Piece] was also designed to offer an enhancement to whosoever bore it that best represented its abilities on the chessboard.**

 **\- Rook: These pieces vastly increase the physical strength of those who bear them, but also reduce their speed. [Kings] can also use the special technique known as [Castling] with any [Rook] piece, regardless of whether they are in use or not. [Rooks] are worth 5 Pawns.**

 **\- Knight: The [Knight] pieces vastly increase the physical speed and agility of the user at the cost of lowering their defence. Cripple the legs of the [Knights] and you essentially end their usefulness on the battlefield. [Knights] are worth 3 Pawns**

 **\- Bishop: The [Bishop] pieces vastly enhance the potency of any magical abilities that the user possesses. It should be noted that while the potency of their spells are increased, it only slightly adds to their Demonic Power, so casting powerful spells will drain [Bishops] quickly, leaving them vulnerable to physical attacks. [Bishops] are worth 3 Pawns.**

 **\- Queen: Out of all of the pieces, the [Queen] piece is the one considered the strongest. One who bears a [Queen] piece has access to the amplified abilities of [Rooks], [Knights] and [Bishops] all at once. Thus they are considered the most balanced as well as the most powerful. A note that should be made is that more often than not, the physical abilities of the [Knight] and [Rook] are neglected in favour of the magical powers of the [Bishop]. A [Queen] is worth 9 Pawns.**

 **\- Pawn: The humble [Pawn] piece. Oftentimes seen as the weakest piece and used in sacrifice gambits for other pieces to advance, the Pawn can be a surprisingly devastating wildcard, depending on how it is used. To represent that, any [Pawn] can use, with their [King's] permission or in enemy territory, a power known as [Promotion], which allows them to temporarily assume the characteristics of the other pieces. They have no particular weaknesses, but no particular strengths. [Pawns] are, funnily enough, worth one [Pawn] each.**

 **\- King: Unlike the other pieces, the [King] 'piece' is used by the Master of the Peerage, who is either a High/Ultimate Class Pureblood Devil or a High/Ultimate Class Reincarnated Devil. In each territory of the four Maō, there exists a monument that each [King] touches that acts as a [King] piece proxy for them. [Kings] are similar to [Pawns] in that they have no strengths or weaknesses to them. [Kings] are also not ranked by Pawn pieces.**

Issei felt his eyes cross at that info dump. While this was fascinating, it wasn't what he wanted to know, so he skipped to the bottom and resolved to read the rest later.

 **Class: [(Devil Peerage) King]**

 **A class given to those who touch the [King Monuments] in the territory of the Four Maō. It offers several skills that interact with other Evil Pieces within that King's Peerage, but doesn't boost any of the class holder's stats or abilities.**

 **Stat Boosts: None.**

 **Class Skills Gained: [Evil Piece Reincarnation], [Master-Servant Circle Teleport], [Castling], [Devil Contract Magic Circles], [Servant EXP Sharing].**

Issei's eyes narrowed when he read the last skill and he reached out to tap it.

 **[Servant EXP Sharing] (Passive)**

 **A Devil makes contracts with humans. Similar to a quest, the contracted Devil receives rewards upon the completion of the request of their contractor, usually money, precious metals, valuable artwork or favours owed. They also receive a chunk of experience, the amount of which varies depending on the type and difficulty of the request, as well as the social status of the contractor. A King receives an amount of EXP whenever their Servants complete a contract, which varies depending on which Evil Piece the servant possesses, how many of the piece they have or if it's a Mutation Piece and the rank of Devil that the Servant is (Low, Middle or High).**

"Ok, that just isn't fair." Issei muttered in complaint. If ALL of the ORC and Student Council were Reincarnated Devils, or even if most of them were, then it wasn't any wonder Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri were jumping up in levels so quickly; even if each of their Servants only completed a single contract per day, then they were still receiving a good chunk of EXP every single day, and judging by the speed of their masters' levelling up, there was no way that each of them were only doing a single contract a day!

It would also explain why Sona was a higher level than Rias; the Kaichou simply had more Servants completing contracts than her redheaded counterpart did. Rias was catching up though, which probably had to do with how much EXP it was taking Sona to level up rather than extra diligence on Rias' part.

Closing the window, Issei turned his attention to the other two windows. Once was a notice that his Relationship with Sona Sitri had been reset to Neutral from its former position of Dislike. After checking the table of Relationships, Issei found she hadn't disliked him that much, as [Disliked] was only two steps down from [Neutral].

The other was a list of two skills that had been created when he had been talking to Sona.

 **[Lying Through Your Teeth] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Everyone has a particular style of lying that suits them. Some lie by telling the truth, some lie by omission and some, like yourself, specialise in lying by telling brazen untruths. Oh sure, the truth was mixed in there somewhere, but you never said any of that and you know it.**

 **\- While [Lying Through Your Teeth] is active, you will brazenly lie. The likelihood of being believed by your target is determined by taking your CHA stat and comparing it to your target's CHA stat, after altering yours and their CHA stats with modifiers (How smart your target is, how likely they are to belief you, how likely they are to think that you are lying to them, etc, etc). If your CHA score is higher than your target's, you win and your lie goes through. If less, they win.**

 **\- If you fail the Lie Check, there is a 10% chance they will not call you on the lie.**

Beneath the skill there was a note that his LUK stat had been increased by 5 for pulling off Grade-A lying without a skill and successfully deceiving someone with INT more than 50 points higher than his own. Jeez! Sona Sitri had more than 73 INT?! Boy, was he lucky.

 **[Composure] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Used in concert with other skills, such as [Acting], [Dramatics], [Lying], [Bullshitting] and other deception-based skills, [Composure] allows you to seem cool and calm on the surface so that any unease or uncertainty are masked. Even the emotional responses of fear or anger are concealed before the activation of the [Gamer's Mind].**

 **\- +20 to any deception-based skill check.**

A very good set of skills. Issei's head jerked up as the bell went off, signalling the start of lunch. Cursing, Issei beat feet to the cafeteria. He was hungry, damn it!

 _After School_

 _Occult Research Clubroom_

Rias Gremory stared into violet eyes as she asked, "Sona, are you certain that's what he said?"

The Sitri Heiress nodded once, sharply. "Hyōdō-kun said that the man who almost murdered him and his family was someone who seemed to despise the supernatural, races and humans with special powers alike. He was scared out of his mind at the time, but he recalled hearing him talk about Devils, Fallen and Angels as if they were real and Hyōdō-kun also heard the man say something that was similar to 'Holy Cogs' in nature."

"Holy…Sacred Gears." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess realised quickly, "So then...that man was right. There is an organisation of humans out there that wants to eradicate supernaturals. Even their fellow supernaturally empowered humans."

"We know that it's an organisation. What we don't know if they are entirely human." Sona corrected her friend gently, "Nor are we certain of their goals. It could be that some humans are being used by supernaturals for some purpose and don't realise it. That seems a lot more likely that an organisation of ordinary humans flying under the radar for long enough to breed those…ratmen."

Rias nodded. It was a vastly more likely scenario. A supernatural or a group of them tricking a group of humans into steadily following their agenda by manipulating their hatred of supernaturals. It was a very cruel and despicable thing to do, something that was entirely the sort of thing humans did to one another…or that the Old Maō Faction did.

The redhead frowned as that thought seized her attention. The Old Maō Faction and its leaders were the remnants of the supporters of the original bloodlines of the first Four Maō. They sneered at and disdained the Evil Piece system, citing that it was disgraceful and contemptable to make beings into Devils. By and large, they hadn't been heard of for millennia, not beyond rumour and hearsay at least.

"You're the smart one out of the two of us; how long do you think it would take regular human technology to create those ratmen?" Rias asked slowly.

"At least two centuries." Sona replied instantly, "And they only developed the bare basics of the backbone of the technology needed in the last twenty to thirty years. Without the magical alchemy systems used in the forbidden cloning technique, it would take that length of time to experiment in order to have any chance of success."

"So they have to be using some sort of magic." Rias mused, "The man in the brown cape warned my Peerage and I not to breathe in a substance called 'Warpstone' as it would mutate our minds and bodies. It's quite possible that these…Purifiers…are using it as a catalyst to speed up their production of these ratmen."

Sona tilted her head to one side in thought. "A likely hypothesis. Shame we don't have any samples to send to Beelzebub-sama to confirm it. He was…curious when he spoke to me this morning."

"Oh?"

"Yes, he was very interested some sort of mutagenic substance in the ratman sample that we sent him. Apparently it was in every single cell of the ratman's body." Sona informed her friend, "Beelzebub-sama speculates that just being in close proximity with the stuff can affect people's minds, never mind getting in physical contact with it for a while! Whatever it is, this Warpstone has to be destroyed."

"Agreed." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess nodded, "We might have to find our mysterious swordsman again. It's clear that he knows a lot about both the ratmen and the Purifiers."

"Yes." Sona agreed, "Speaking of the Purifiers, it worries me that they seemed to send someone to, rather pathetically, try to assassinate one of the two confirmed Sacred Gear Holders at our school. Do you think it was an actual assassination attempt or just coincidence?"

"Has to be coincidence." Rias said firmly, "Even the supernatural races can only detect the presence of a Sacred Gear Holder when we're within a few metres of them. Even then, it's very hard to determine what type of Sacred Gear it is. Besides, from what you said Hyōdō-kun told you, his attacker seemed to be arguing and falling out with whoever he was calling on his cell phone. It's possible, probable even, that this man was a rogue element in his organisation, which is raised to highly likely given the way that he was killed."

Both girls shuddered at the memory of the police report they had 'acquired' thanks to their connections. It had made for grisly reading.

"I am honestly disgusted by the way he was killed, but after what he tried to do to the Hyōdō family, I cannot say that it is undeserved." The Sitri Heiress sighed, "Having the safety and sanctity of your own home violated and having to watch as a madman tries to kill your son…no wonder Hyōdō Yukariko was so passionate in defence of her son."

They had spied on the meeting between the teachers and the older Hyōdō's and were rather impressed by the Hyōdō Matriarch's use of dry wit, sarcasm and logic, combined with a statement from the police in her son's defence, to utterly humiliate and humble the teachers. It had been highly educational.

"My Peerage was shocked about the actions of the teachers." Rias shook her head, still a bit shocked herself, "Akeno wanted to teach them a lesson herself, given…well, what happened."

The invasion of her home and the murder of her mother at the hands of the Himejima Clan. Sona winced. Yes, Akeno would have greatly sympathised with one Hyōdō Issei in this situation.

"I'm glad you talked her out of doing anything rash." She stated before changing the subject, "I'm planning on bringing in Saji-kun earlier than I had originally calculated. He's too exposed as a human and I am unwilling to potentially lose a Dragon-type Sacred Gear to these Purifiers."

"You do know that he has a crush on you?" Rias teased her friend.

"A feeling that is not reciprocated, I can assure you." Sona replied dryly, "Besides, I know for a fact that three of my Peerage have expressed interest in him. Once I bring him in, I dare say they won't hesitate to show him why female Devils have a lusty reputation."

"Good for them." Rias nodded approvingly. In her opinion, people should be honest with their emotions and desires, without being egotistical about it like a certain Phenex Scion was. It was for this reason she found the Perverted Trio amusing, especially one Hyōdō Issei as he was honest, wore his emotions on his sleeve and cute.

"So Hyōdō-kun is all mine?" Rias smiled, but her eyes had that core of desperation that Sona had seen more and more frequently as every attempt she and Rias could think of or scheme about to have the Phenex engagement nullified failed.

"If you can convince him, then he is yours." The bespectacled Devil nodded. It was an agreement that she and Rias had struck the first day they had set foot in Kuō Town. Upon finding someone that one of them wanted to join their Peerage, the other had to be informed immediately to see if they were interested. Additionally, if one claimed a powerful Sacred Gear user, the next one would go to the other King automatically unless they didn't want them.

Until recently, the agreement had benefited Sona immensely, as Rias hadn't been interested in the ones she had seen. Sona's Peerage had swollen and she liked them all, even loved her Queen, Tsubaki, as a sister. Rias had Akeno the Priestess of Thunder, a **[Queen]** , Kiba, a **[Knight]** , Koneko, a **[Rook]** and Gaspar, a **[Bishop]**. Of those, Gaspar the **[Bishop]** had been sealed away due to his lack of control of his Sacred Gear, **[Forbidden Balor View]**. Kiba had access to [Sword Birth], a powerful Sacred Gear that could produce swords of every attribute except light, while Koneko was an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. Akeno used the barest hints of her heritage as a Nephilim, the child of a Fallen and a human, in her thunder magic, but was a standard **[Queen]** otherwise.

Raiser Phenex had a full fifteen piece Peerage, including his younger sister Ravel as a **[Bishop]**. His queen, Yubelluna, was known as the infamous Bomb Queen, specialising in explosively powerful fire magic. Raiser had only lost twice in his few Rating Games…losses he had conceded as a favour to the houses that his opposing Peerage belonged to.

A part of the marriage contract that Rias would be forced to invoke in two months' time was the Rating Game against Raiser. He was older, more powerful, more experienced and possessed more pieces than she did. Raiser could simply swamp Rias' Peerage with numbers. Even if he lost every single piece other than himself, he was still highly likely to win due to his Phenex Regeneration, which had been proven to even regenerate its bearer from attacks made by the Bael's Power of Destruction.

No matter how Sona looked at it, her friend was doomed.

Still…the first signal that she'd been able to scan from Hyōdō Issei had been that of a Dragon-type Sacred Gear, which was pretty rare. Dragon types varied in strength between the common **[Twice Critical]** and the two Sacred Gears of the Nitenryū, the Two Heavenly Dragons, the **[Boosted Gear]** and **[Divine Dividing]**. None of Raiser's Peerage possessed Sacred Gears, so having at least one gave Rias a slight advantage…on paper. Depending on what Hyōdō's Sacred Gear was, it could have quite the impact on the outcome of the game.

"You do have to consider the possibility that he will say no, you know." Sona cautioned Rias.

Crystal blue eyes rolled in dismissal. "He wants a harem, and those are hardly rare or even uncommon in Devil society. Once I tell him that, he'll be eating out of my hand. With Akeno and I as examples of Devils, he'd be someone else to say no."

"And Koneko?" Sona raised an eyebrow.

"She is far too young to be used for seduction tactics." Rias stated firmly, "She will be a looker when she fully matures, but that time isn't now."

It was something that severely irritated the former Nekoshō. Her mental maturity was far in advance of her physical maturity. Although, as she hadn't even revealed her tail and ears in many years, nor had she so much as touched Senjutsu, she was able to fully suppress the mating instinct of her race with moderate ease. Still, being called the Mascot of Kuō Academy was more than slightly irksome for the girl.

Quite understandable, in Sona's opinion.

"We'd better get on." She said at last, "Our Peerages are busy working, so we can't have them show us up, can we?"

"Just so." Rias nodded, "Well then, until tomorrow, Sona."

"Tomorrow, Rias."

In twin flashes of red and blue, the ORC club room was empty once again.

 **IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

 _With Issei_

"Achoo!"

Issei barely managed to cover his fifth sneeze in as many minutes. Was someone talking about him behind his back?

Shrugging, the Sekiryūtei approached his destination. It was an abandoned building on the outskirts of Kuō Town. It also hid the entrance to the second to last Rat Den. This was one that Issei hoped would lead him to the Purifiers rather than just for more EXP and loot.

Although EXP and loot was always welcome.

Checking that the coast was clear, he snuck into the house through an open window before equipping his armour and cloak. Not many people came to this part of town, but it never hurt to be careful. A quick search of the ground floor revealed nothing, so Issei descended into the basement.

The basement of the house had solid concrete walls and numerous pipes along one wall, which was immediately suspicious. No way were all of them for this house, which only had a bathroom, a toilet and a basic kitchen sink. That added up to twelve pipes or so, and there were in excess of thirty here.

With a mutter, Issei activated his **[Puzzle Solving]** Skill, which, even at Level 2, showed him that there were thirteen valve handles in a circle and not all of them were facing away from the wall that the pipes were snug against.

And, sure enough, when he twisted the valve handles around to face away from the wall, the pipes sunk into the ground, as did a rectangular section of concrete, revealing a dark doorway, with steps leading down into the darkness.

 **[Warning!]**

 **[You are about to enter the dungeon [Lair of the Gutter Rats] (LV 12)**

 **Once entered, you must clear the dungeon in order to leave.]**

 **[Do you wish to enter?]**

 **[Y | N]**

Hitting yes, Issei took a moment to flip his hood up and activate his cloak's obscuring ability before descending down the steps. Yes, the dungeon's level was slightly higher than his level, but defeating enemies with superior levels gained him more EXP…at least, it should. That's how it worked in ordinary games, so the **[Gaming Gear]** should do that too.

At the bottom of the stairs was another treasure chest, just like there had been in all of them. This one held two things. The first was a pack of ten [Average Quality Throwing Knives]. They were specially designed to be used with the **[Knife Throwing]** skill and added an extra +10 to both accuracy and damage when used with that skill.

The second was a **[Hand of Glory]**. It was a rather disgusting looking carved wooden hand with a candle in it. According to **[Observe]** , if he placed the candle in the candles grasp, it would come alight and only he would see the light it cast. No one else. It was really rather useful, especially since the only light in the chamber he stood in came from the open door at the top of the stairs.

It did cost him 1 MP Per Minute to keep the flame alight, and the candle would only last an hour before running out, but as he had neglected to bring a torch, this was a suitable alternative.

Setting the [Hand of Glory] up, Issei pulled out his [Rapscallion Wave Blade] and set out through the only door out of the antechamber. He halted when a pop up appeared in front of him.

 **[In order to clear this dungeon, you must find and defeat the five ratmen lurking in the darkness before confronting their master.]**

Well, that was a load of use. Rats had superior senses of hearing and smell, if memory served, so the ratmen, assuming they shared that trait with ordinary rats, would easily be able to avoid him and attack him with impunity…

Oh. The ratmen might be able to hide, but their little name bars and title bars shouldn't be affected…unless they had a stealth skill or something. Which was rather likely given this pitch black darkness. Lovely. And here was him without any fire magic.

Resigned to a thankless task, Issei set out into the darkness…and almost walked into a wall. What an omen for this dungeon.

"Man-thing…man-thing…" a mocking voice called out to him, "I can smell you…I can hear you…but you are blind-blind!"

"Do these rats _have_ to say words twice every so often?" the Sekiryūtei grumbled before raising his voice, "Yeah, so I assumed. Are you going to dance in the darkness all day or are we going to fight?"

"Kekekekekeke…be careful what you wish-wish for, man-thing…you may just get it!"

The only warning that Issei had was a slight whistling sound in the air to his right. He raised his sword and slashed at where it was coming from. The screech of metal-on-metal sounded before whatever had been thrown at him clattered to the ground. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Issei saw…a shuriken? Seriously? Ratmen ninja?!

"Lucky shot." The voice growled, "We shall see how you do-do when my disciples are finished bleeding you out."

A slight scuffle of cloth on stone and Issei assumed that the voice, who almost had to be the dungeon boss, had left. Great. The guy was hoping for an easy kill, but decided to leave it to his minions when that proved to be not possible.

The guy was an eighties Bond villain.

Sighing, the Sekiryūtei drew his hood off his head, as he guessed that it was insufficient to counter any anti-stealth skills that these rat ninjas had up their sleeves. At the very least, the boss could see through it, so he might as well get used to being seen by these lower levelled ninja.

The sword attack slammed into his Menpō with the force of a pile driver, sending him flying back, but Issei managed to keep his footing. He glared at the ratman who had attacked him. It crouched low with a ninjatō in one hand, black clothing similar to shinobi shōzoku covering most of its grey-furred body. Its tail had a bladed tip attached to the end of it. Issei's senses screamed 'danger!' at him. Even Byral, Farsqueaker and the two iterations of Boneripper hadn't done that to him.

 **Gutter Runner LV12**

 **[No Need For Second Strike]**

 **You have lost 50 HP!**

From one strike?!

" **[Force Absorption Field]!** " Issei hissed. The bubble, invisible to any but him, appeared. He had experimented with it in the last two dens and it had proven rather useful. Something that he hadn't known was that not only did the field reduce the physical force of the blows; it also slowed down their actual speed as well. Well, either that, or it had been added when the skill had levelled up to Level 2.

Without even a sneer, the Gutter Runner launched another attack, the blade flashing in its hand as it attempted to disembowel him. Issei silently used the **[Parry]** skill, deflecting it and earning a **[Riposte]** , which severed the tail of the creature.

 **You have severed a limb! Enemy Gutter Runner has had the [Bleeding] status inflicted upon it!**

"KKKKeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" the ratman shrieked in pain before drawing a dagger from its waist. Issei noted idly that it was dripping a foul greenish fluid. Probably made from a mixture of Warpstone and other foul things. No way was he going to let himself get hit by that!

" **[Earth Shot]!** " Issei fired a chunk of rock at the assassin, who nimbly dodged out of the way. It left itself open to a counterattack, which Issei used to score a long gash up its off hand, forcing it to drop the dagger. Hurriedly disengaging, the Sekiryūtei locked blades with the ratman when it charged.

"Die-die-de gozaru!"

"You're a ninja, not a samurai!" Issei unleashed a tsukkomi on instinct before kicking the ratman between the legs. Ordinarily, he wouldn't break the bro code's most important rule, never hit the nuts, but this was no bro.

The ratman's eyes bulged out of its head as it staggered back, dropping its sword as it cradled its jewels. Issei ended it with a single cut of his sword.

 **You have slain a Gutter Runner! You gain 335 EXP!**

 **Do you wish to loot the body?**

 **Y/N**

 **Hitting Yes, Issei watched with interest as the list of loot lined up.**

 **X1 Crude Steel Ninjatō**

 **X1 Weeping Blade**

 **¥600**

 **X5 Average Steel Shuriken**

 **X5 Unknown Vials**

Examining the description of the **[Weeping Blade]** , Issei shuddered. A Warpstone/steel hybrid blade that literally wept a virulent poison from its edge that could cause a heart attack with long enough exposure and dealt pretty bad poison damage in the time between. He marked the **[Weeping Blade]** and the vials to be sold, as the vials were likely poisons or other drugs. He earned a whopping ¥5000 from the sale of both of them!

The ninjatō was more interesting to him.

 **[Crude Steel Ninjatō]**

 **A steel sword forged in the shape of the popular film-only Japanese swords. It was simply poured into a mould and sharpened, but it is a decent weapon, albeit one easily used and discarded once broken.**

 **Durability: 25/30**

 **Short Sword**

 **Slash Damage: S+20**

 **Pierce Damage: S+15**

A _Durability_ stat? Oh hell. This meant he'd have to start maintaining his weapons! He really hated it when the **[Gaming Gear]** added patches when he wasn't looking! Still for a crude and hack job of a sword, it really wasn't too bad. He'd use it instead of his [Rapscallion Wave Blade] for now.

It had to be said that wandering around in the dark was very disorienting. It also played tricks on the mind, making the movements of the ratmen assassins look faster than they actually were. Issei was getting kind of sick of the whole song and dance after he got bushwhacked by two more of the Gutter Runners one after another.

From what he could tell, the dungeon had one huge central area, with about thirteen small chambers branching off equidistantly, as well as a single large door, which probably led to the Boss' room. The **[Mental Mapping]** skill really shone here, as he could project a mini-map that displayed his location and the blueprint of the surrounding area.

He had been attacked by the Gutter Runners as he circumnavigated the large room, meaning that they had at least some idea of what he was doing. As an added bonus, he had developed the **[Lesser Night Vision]** skill, which had alleviated the gloom of the dark room to some degree, but not by much. At a guess, the ratmen assassins had the real **[Night Vision]** skill on top of their enhanced nasal and hearing abilities.

"So…I'm going to have to check every damn room in the area? Seriously? Gah."

He chugged a potion to restore his health before continuing. That had been a bit of bounty from the last two dens; ten Health Potions and ten MP Potions. He also chugged an MP potion, as he was still keeping up his **[Force Absorption Field]** all the time.

The first two rooms were empty of everything but dust bunnies. The third through fifth rooms had a small chest in them with ¥1000 in them. The sixth through eighth rooms had a rack of [Crude Steel Ninjatō] and a pouch of thirty [Average Steel Shuriken] in them each. This made Issei practically jump with glee at the free weaponry. It would be some time before he ran out of weapons.

The next few rooms were empty, with only bloodstains on the floor indicating that something odd had happened here. Infighting among the ratmen? Or had the Purifiers tried and failed to initiate Project Rat Poison? The mystery was starting to make Issei's brain hurt. Why couldn't things be simpler? Kill the rats, kick the Purifiers' asses. Bim-bam, thank you ma'am. Now he had to wonder who he was really fighting here.

It was in the thirteenth room that Issei was ambushed by both of the remaining Gutter Runners…at once. They began with a hail of shuriken and throwing knives that forced Issei to put up a **[Lesser Barrier Shield]** in order to block them. Then they tried the tried and true ratman tactic of a pincer assault, ninjatō slashing at him from both sides.

Dodging one and blocking the other, Issei lashed out with his left leg, smashing it into the Gutter Runner on that side's face, sending it back howling in pain from its clearly broken muzzle.

That was a bit unexpected. Then again, his STR was in the low seventies. That would put a crimp in most people's days if they were hit by him at full strength.

The other one lashed out with its tail, hoping to score a hit with its tail spike while Issei was locked blades with it.

" **[Bronze Skin]!** "

In a flash, Issei's skin turned the burnished colour of bronze just before the spike struck. Thankfully, the added defence that the spell granted him repelled the attack without piercing through it.

Deactivating the spell, as it was low levelled and slowed him down too much to be used against these fast enemies, Issei pushed the sword of his opponent away before stabbing the Gutter Runner right where the heart would be on a human.

 **Critical Hit! Instant Death!**

As he withdrew his sword from the collapsing corpse, Issei turned to face the still wailing Gutter Runner. Clearly, these guys were more used to inflicting pain than receiving it. He ended the life of the maimed Gutter Runner with a slice of his blade.

Which then broke.

 **You have slain X2 Gutter Runner! You gain 670 EXP!**

 **Your [Crude Steel Ninjatō] has been destroyed as a result of using up its durability!**

 **Congratulations! As a result of repeated actions, you have created the [Close Combat Evasion] Skill!**

 **[Close Combat Evasion] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **When fighting in close proximity to the enemy, being able to dodge is a rare thing to be able to accomplish without leaving yourself vulnerable to a counterattack. Those who manage to achieve this are very irritating to fight on their terms.**

 **\- Grants a further +15% chance to dodge enemy attacks when in close combat.**

 **\- Reduces chance of being struck by an enemy counterattack after a successful dodge by 15%.**

 **[Bronze Skin] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Force Absorption Field] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Defensive Magic] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Short Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Lesser HP Regeneration] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

Swiftly looting the bodies and selling their [Weeping Blades] and poisons, Issei discarded the remnant of his broken ninjatō before equipping another one from his inventory. That was a good set of skill levelling there. Something he had to do in future was level up **[Bronze Skin]** a bit more so that the speed reduction was either reduced to the point of triviality or removed completely. The defensive potential of that spell was quite good.

"Now then…to the boss." He muttered. [Hand of Glory] held aloft, Issei exited the room and headed to the large set of doors that barred his way. Idly, he noticed that they each had five lights on them, shaped like a horned rat's head. One on each door to represent each Gutter Runner, he supposed. With a touch, the doors slowly swung open, revealing a long passage.

Chugging another MP Potion, the Sekiryūtei started down the passage, the doors swinging shut after he passed through them.

The passage was made of old stone held together by old cement, moss, damp and weight of the other stones. It looked hundreds of years old, which simply wasn't possible. Kuō Town was a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty years old at oldest. He dimly recalled that it had been an amalgamation of four or five small villages during the late Edo Period and the early part of the Meiji Era.

Anyway, this almost had to be created by his **[Gamer's Gear]** , or at least enhanced by it. He had to admit that the ambience really got him into the right attitude for fighting these rats.

The end of the passageway loomed ahead. Issei tightened his grip on his sword and activated his new trump card against bosses.

" **[Magic Weapon Reinforcement]!** "

A red glow appeared around his ninjatō as he stepped over the threshold and took in the room. It was about the size of a school gym and was lit by hundreds of candles. Literally hundreds of them lined the walls and hung from chandeliers on the ceiling.

Deactivating the [Hand of Glory] and stowing it in his inventory, Issei proceeded to step cautiously into the large room. There were target dummies similar to those Byral had had in his room set up all over the room, with targets symbols daubed crudely on certain locations. Potential weak points, perhaps?

At the far side of the room, a raised dais had a larger than normal ratman sitting in what looked like the lotus position. It was slightly shorter than Byral Warfang had been and was in much better physical condition than either Byral or Farsqueaker. Whipcord-lean limbs corded with muscles beneath the black fur, what little was exposed.

It wore similar clothes to the Gutter Runners from earlier, but they were also far better quality and his most of its fur from sight. It also possessed a hooded cape that ended at its lower back. Two handles were sheathed at its waist, ones Issei recognised as belonging to [Weeping Blades].

"So…you have slain-killed my disciples, man-thing." The black-furred ratman spoke, its eyes still closed.

"Yeah…the whole hide and seek thing got boring after the first time I almost got shanked by them." Issei replied casually, "Really hope you aren't planning on somehow snuffing out these candles and pulling that on me."

"Keh…a man-thing is weak-weak prey for my skills." The dungeon boss replied contemptuously, "Darkness will be unneeded to slay-murder you."

Eyes still closed, it stood up and rolled its head around before its eyes snapped open. They were totally red, sclera, pupil and iris.

"I am the Master Assassin of the Council of Thirteen, one of whom you have already kill-killed." It said coldly, "Prepare to suffer, man-thing."

Then, the one thing that had been missing from the scene appeared above the Ratman's head.

 **Deathmaster Snikch LV15**

 **[Master Assassin/Chief Assassin of Clan Eshin]**

Oh hell.

Hurriedly drawing another ninjatō, Issei prepared himself to fight.

Then Snikch _moved_! He was so fast that the Level 3 **[Force Absorption Field]** barely did anything to slow him down. Issei blocked one swipe -was that a barehanded attack?- from the Master Assassin that resonated up his arm. Damn, did this rat hit hard!

"Weak-weak!" the rat sneered, "My disciples lost to you?! Inconceivable!"

"Oh, go eat cheese!" Issei snarled before slashing at the rat with his off hand. His **[Ambidextrous]** skill was only Level 3, which meant that attacks made with his off-hand suffered a penalty of -50 from accuracy and damage, which is why it wasn't entirely surprising that one of Snikch's hands lashed out and smacked the incoming blade to one side.

What was surprising was the slight wince that the Deathmaster showed just afterwards. It was a slight twitch that Issei might have missed had he been looking anywhere but at the Deathmaster's face, but it was undoubtedly a flinch of pain.

"I see…" Snikch hissed as he backed up slightly, "Your defence is weak-weak, but you strike like a thrown stone. I see that fighting you with bare claws will not work."

With deliberate slowness, the ratman assassin drew his [Weeping Blades] from their sheaths. These ones were more like short swords compared to the daggers that the Gutter Runners had had. They also had a serrated edge about halfway down the blade for a couple of inches. A possible weak point.

Without warning, Snikch threw himself at Issei, a third [Weeping Blade], of a similar size to his other two, emerged from below his cloak, held by his tail. The three poisonous blades sliced and cut at him, but liberal use of the **[Parry]** skill kept him at bay, although it left Issei with almost no time to attack himself.

When his ninjatō both snapped, even with the reinforcement from his magic, the Sekiryūtei drew out a fresh pair, his mind racing. The destruction of his weapons had ended the **[Magic Weapon Reinforcement]** , so he quickly reactivated it.

'I can't keep staying on the defensive like this; I won't get anywhere.' He thought as he and Snikch circled each other warily, 'That third sword is the problem. If I can get rid of it, I can at least match this guy in number of weapons, if not the same quality of weapons.'

"I tire of this dance-fight." Snikch growled, "Now…it's time to die-die, man-thing. **[Dance of the Weeping Blades]!** "

" **[Lesser Barrier Shield]!** " Issei barked as he felt magic pour off of the master Assassin like a wave of water. Just as the shield sprang to life, the Deathmaster charged forwards and smashed into it with all three of his blades. He then unleashed a frenzied series of cuts, stabs and slices at it, rapidly depleting its Durability and destroying it.

"Crap!"

Issei blocked the next two cuts, but the third scored a line right across his chest.

 **You lose 70 HP!**

Thankfully, it hadn't penetrated his armour, so there shouldn't be any worry about being poisoned. Issei fired an **[Earth Shot]** at point blank range before charging in, hoping that Snikch would be at least a little distracted by the stone missile.

He wasn't.

The Deathmaster cut the projectile in half before engaging Issei in close, three swords lashing out at Issei, hammering away at his defences with practiced ease.

Getting desperate, Issei timed it until all three of the [Weeping Blades] were attacking in the same vertical area before moving in, swords crossed and blocking them all.

Cracks appeared in the ninjatō, but they didn't break quite yet. Issei heaved with all of his strength and threw Snikch completely off balance before unleashing a barrage of attacks with his cracked ninjatō, scoring at least three deep cuts on the Assassin's body. The ninjatō shattered again and Issei hastily replaced them and reactivated his weapon enhancement spell as the Deathmaster stumbled back, clutching the largest of the wounds on his torso.

"Krrrrrraaaaahhhh!" Snikch yowled in pain. Leaping back and panting heavily, his red eyes glared at Issei, radiating fury.

" **[Cloak of Shadows]!** " he hissed. Snikch's form became black and ethereal and it looked as if he were made of shadows themselves. The only solid parts on him were the [Weeping Blades].

Issei recognised this sort of form. He'd come across it in some RPG games. Snikch was now Ethereal, unable to be hit by non-magical weaponry. The fact that his weapons remained solid meant one of two things. One, that Warpstone was partially immune to the effects of skills. Or, Two, the skill that Snikch used didn't affect magical weapons point blank.

'Wait a minute…why would he use a skill or spell that turned him ethereal? He has to know that my ninjatō are currently magically enhanced, so more than able to hurt him in that form.' Issei thought with a frown.

The fact that Snikch could use spells or active skills was something quite new to Issei. Both Byral and Farsqueaker had relied on basic attacks when fighting him and both iterations of Boneripper had done the same, aside from Boneripper Revived's Warpfire Thrower. None of the other bosses since then had used skills or spells either.

Things were becoming interesting.

"He who fights and scuttles away, lives to fight another day, Man-Thing." The Assassin hissed as he sheathed his [Weeping Blades], "You have proven-showed yourself to be worthy prey. Should you live past the next Den, I shall take great pleasure in kill-killing you!"

With that, the ratman's shadow form sank into the floor, leaving Issei alone in the candlelit room.

 **Congratulations! You have successfully driven off the Deathmaster! You earn 795 EXP!**

 **There are three chests in this room that hold a reward for one who survives their encounter with Deathmaster Snikch. Please select your prize from the list.**

 **\- [Cloak of Shadows] [?]**

 **\- [Weeping Blade Longsword] [?]**

 **\- [Assassination] skill book**

Cancelling all the magic he had active, Issei breathed a sigh of relief. While he had managed to hurt the Master Assassin, the five levels that Snikch had on him had meant that there was no telling what skills the ratman had up his sleeve. Getting a reward for surviving indicated that even his **[Gaming Gear]** hadn't thought he could win.

He looked at the three prizes. The last one was self-explanatory, but he didn't especially want that skill. The same applied to the [Weeping Blade Longsword]. One, it was a longsword, so his **[Short Sword Mastery]** wouldn't affect it and two, it was made with Warpstone, which he didn't even want to touch. This left the **[Cloak of Shadows]** , which he was interested in, considering the name's possible relation with the skill that the Deathmaster had just used.

 **[Cloak of Shadows]**

 **The Cloak of Shadows is weaved from the finest hairs of semi-ethereal creatures and enchanted by the most cunning concealment spells and enchantments known to the creator. While wearing this cloak, the wearer cannot be detected by mundane sight, sound or smell, and it also masks the magical and spiritual signature of the wearer from detection by weak sensory abilities. The user also merges with the shadows simply by wearing the cloak, making it very difficult to spot the wearer even without the concealment mode.**

 **The demerit to wearing the Cloak is that you cannot attack while the hood is up, which activates the concealment abilities, and furthermore, the user is extra vulnerable to magical attacks if discovered while concealed.**

 **Cloak**

 **\- While hood is up, the user gains the skills [Mundane Sight Detection Immunity], [Mundane Sound Detection Immunity], [Mundane Scent Detection Immunity], [Medium Magical Masking] and [Medium Spiritual Masking].**

 **\- Cannot attack while the skills are active.**

 **\- If discovered while in concealment, all magical attacks directed towards the wearer deal double damage for 30 seconds.**

 **\- Wearing the Cloak grants the user the ability to blend with the shadows, granting the [At One with the Shadows] and [Shadow Walking] skills.**

"As if I would pick anything else!" Issei exclaimed with glee. Tapping the cloak, he noted that it was added to his inventory before the after-battle resolution continued.

 **As a result of a specific action, the [Vertical Cross Block] skill has been created!**

 **[Vertical Cross Block] (Active) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Only usable if dual wielding swords. By crossing your swords above your head, you can support one blade with the other, greatly strengthening your guard against a single attack from above your vertical axis. It does leave you vulnerable to attacks from below and from your horizontal axis, however.**

 **\- Once activated, the user's body will assume the position automatically.**

 **\- A single attack unleashed against this blocking skill will be neutralised so long as the attacker does not possess 30 points more STR than you. If they do, your guard will be broken and you will receive half the damage from the attack.**

 **-If the attack is successfully neutralised, the enemy will be stunned for 10 seconds.**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Evade] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Close Combat Evasion] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Magic Weapon Reinforcement] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

 **[Ambidextrous] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

"Whew…hey, I just did all that without the **[Boosted Gear]!** " Issei realised, "Dammit…well, live and learn. At least my skills other than **[Boost!]** got a workout."

Indeed they had. All told, eleven skills had levelled up and he'd learned two more skills, one of which had been among the eleven that had levelled up. That had to be some kind of record.

Issei turned towards the door leading out of the room, but, as usual, it slammed shut, making him sigh. ' _Why?_ _Why do they always do that? I mean, really!_ '

Sighing again, the Sekiryūtei looked around the dais. The bosses always had the lever to the exit stashed somewhere near their throne/starting area. That was one common factor between them. And, sure enough, there was a hidden switch in one corner of the dais. Issei pressed it.

With a rumble, the centre of the dais started to rotate, a circular stairway emerging and ascending up. Issei waited until it was fully deployed before starting to climb it. It looked rickety and there were a few rotten steps, but he managed to avoid falling down them.

The landing at the top was dusty as hell. No one had been there in ages, but there was a long trail of blood leading from midway down the landing through the only door that was left to go through.

Swallowing, Issei drew his swords again and stepped cautiously down the landing until he reached the door, which was slightly ajar. A slight push was all that was needed to swing the door open and reveal the contents of the room before him.

The corpse of a human sat in a chair behind a desk, the trail of blood leading up to it. The human had been dressed in a white uniform with black trimming and had a patch over the heart and on each shoulder of a white torch set on a blue background. Underneath it, the words 'Veneficas et Supernaturalis Mortem' was written in stylised script.

The cause of death was obvious; the corpse was missing his arm from the elbow down and there were numerous cuts across his body that had a familiar green liquid left over. Warpstone.

"Looks like someone pissed off the rats." Issei muttered once the [Gamer's Mind] kicked in and calmed him down. It wasn't every day that you came across a partially desiccated corpse and his heart had shot into his mouth before he had been calmed down.

Just as every time before, there was a piece of paper lying on the desk, which Issei picked up first. It had bloody fingerprints on it, presumably from the dead man.

 _'To whom it may concern._

 _I, the corpse you see before you now, am the former Head of Project Rat King. I was a member of an organisation known as the Purifiers, we who have dedicated our lives to the destruction of any and all supernatural forces on the planet. I proposed Project Rat King, hoping that I would be able to create the perfect cannon fodder for our cause. A simple-minded race of creatures whose sole purpose would be to die so our brothers would live._

 _I was a fool._

 _The substance designated as 'Warpstone' is a marvel unlike no other I have encountered before, allowing evolution and mutation that would normally take centuries of careful breeding to occur in a span of weeks. Simple physical proximity over a three week period caused our test subjects (a group of rats that had already been modified genetically using the latest genetics technology to combine the best traits of several existing species) to grow to the size of spaniels. Extended exposure over a six month period resulted in immense leaps in mental development to the point of a lower primate. Eventually, two years after the project was started, their bodies had mutated to allow them to walk on their hind legs and began to regularly develop opposable thumbs._

 _The initial training regime showed extremely positive results. Human wave tactics seemed to fit the species perfectly, they had little to no regard to loss of life among their own kind but had strong personal survival instincts that made them fight ferociously to defend themselves. Combined with their limited ability to craft crude weapons and armour on their own, and thus making them reliant on us for anything better, and they were quickly shaping into the perfect cannon fodder for our eventual war._

 _When the first examples of larger, more physically powerful specimens emerged (I theorized it was a genetic throwback to the black rat genetics) I saw no issues in having them trained more heavily into a semi-competent 'elite' force within the Ratmen ranks, This would give rise into the first true subspecies within Project Rat King, which was later dubbed the Stormvermin over the Slave (subjects of the earliest Ratmen that did not fully develop cognitive sapience) and Clanrats (the first fully-developed Ratman genus that emerged)._

 _The next divergence was slightly more worrisome. Several specimen developed increased cognitive skills and intelligence and an unnatural affinity for manipulating the mutagenic abilities of Warpstone. I theorized it might be due to their constant exposure to the substance that gave them a unique affinity for it._

 _Several began to experiment on their own kind, causing further mutations. The two most successful results of these experiments were the 'Rat Ogres' (an extreme advancement of the same mutation that gave rise to the Stormvermin but at the cost of the creature's cognitive abilities), and the 'Giant Rats' (a throwback to the first stages of their mutation, only greatly increased in size). Several specimens quickly began to develop an instinctive ability to tame and manipulate these mutations. I later dubbed them Packmasters and the ones who specialize in creating the mutations Vat Masters._

 _The Warplock Engineers were another emergence along the same line, only these specimen seemed to devote themselves to manipulating and working with Warpstone itself, turning it into some form of arcane focus rather than a genetic mutagen. I was concerned, but this magic (or more accurately a form of techno-sorcery) was weak and oriented primarily toward offense, which could only serve our purposes. Even the best device that were created using this process were, at best, modestly improved version of out-of-date weapons from the single-shot rifle era. Even the development of the Warpfire Thrower and Ratling Gun couldn't knock me from the perch I'd placed myself on._

 _I foolishly believed that I had everything under control._

 _However, not even my ego could remain undaunted at the next development._

 _I don't know how it happened. It shouldn't have been able to happen so quickly, but the Ratmen somehow managed to develop their own society and leadership structure. Their 'Council of Thirteen' and their 'Clans' were factitious and obviously based on the Feudal system of Japan's Warring States Era; though lacking in the form of an Emperor or Shogun._

 _It was only recently that I found a clue; it appears they somehow acquired copies of Japanese historical manga and used it as a building block to develop their own society. To think, my wondrous experiment, destroyed by some comic books._

 _The development of their own society had the effect that I had feared, the reason I had tried to ensure that none developed._

 _It gave them a sense of identity. A sense of control! With that our absolute control was broken, and they began to resist our experiments, fight against our right to control them._

 _The ones who killed me, calling themselves 'Clan Eshin', seem to have based themselves off of ninja. How they managed to develop their own form of martial arts in the five years since they started walking on two feet is beyond my comprehension, but I believe that the Warpstone might have additional developmental effects that our initial experiments never detected. It takes humans decades to create an original form of martial arts, so the only logical conclusion is that they somehow copied from human martial arts to create their 'Way of the Striking Claw' as they call it._

 _I arrived at this site with my two bodyguards for a scheduled inspection and was attacked immediately. My bodyguards were overwhelmed within seconds of arriving struck from the shadows before they could even ready their own weapons, but it was long enough for me to confront the leader of these shadowy rats and demand answers. This Snikch character is dangerous and quick. He speaks of overwhelming human society with the ratmen before creating an 'Under-Empire' ruled by the Ratmen while we humans would serve under their feet._

 _I am dying as I write this, but I have managed to get away from Snikch. All is not lost, however. Before placing them in the Burrows to begin field development and independent growth and breeding, I had a system secretly installed into them all. It works as a powerful form of hypnosis, slaving them all subliminally to a series of commands that is reinforced through subsonic speakers built into the Warrens and activated on a calculated schedule, unnoticeable to human ears or even conscious Ratman hearing, but still audible enough to affect their subconscious. The commands are:_

 _1) They cannot attack humans unless the human enters their burrow._

 _2) All efforts are to be made towards preparing to attack the supernatural locals in Kuō Town, with an attack to take place upon completion._

 _3) The Purifiers are their masters._

 _Somehow, they seem to have overcome the last command, possibly due to the effects of the Warpstone, so I sent a signal to my base, ordering the hypnosis system to triple its power and to focus on reinforcing the first two commands. If these bedamned rats think that they can rebel against their masters, they had better think again._

 _If you have survived these Eshin monstrosities, then you are more fortunate than I. Should you be worried about the Ratmen, rest assured that if they do somehow break free of the last two commands, Project Rat Poison will take care of them poste-haste._

 _On the slight off-chance that they truly have rebelled, I ensured that their 'Brood Mother' in Burrow #1could only spawn a certain number of Ratmen per month and that it could not birth other Brood Mothers. I have also taken steps to ensure that the Vat Masters cannot use samples of her flesh to clone more._

 _Project Rat Poison is a two-part plan. First, it releases a chemical gas that was designed to activate certain genetic triggers that were placed within the Ratmen's body when the experiments first began and that we ensured bred true in later specimen, rendering them sterile. Afterwards a secondary gas is released to vastly speed up the cellular regeneration of the Ratmen, essentially causing them to age years in minutes. Ratmen do not live much longer than their mundane compatriots, so once the secondary stage of Rat Poison is deployed, all Ratmen inside of their burrows will be dead in a matter of an hour, at absolute latest. The primary gas is merely a safety mechanism should some manage to escape, they will be incapable of breeding and will die out within a decade or so._

 _I…am finding it harder and harder to concentrate as my life slips away, and my mind wanders and wonders. Did I do the right thing? Have my actions been just? A Fallen Angel murdered my father and I have spent my entire life hoping to justice done on them. But…do all supernaturals deserve to be tarred by the same brush for the actions of a single being? Humans do not. I guess I shall have to find out if my actions were just or not depending on if I wake up in Hell or Heaven…or perhaps reincarnation?_

 _Written in truth,_

 _Midorikawa Nobuyuki'_

"Damn." Issei shook his head. Dying down here, all alone…even a Purifier didn't deserve that. And by the sounds of it, he had a reason, a pretty good one at that, to hate the supernatural. He had done monstrous things in the name of revenge, but seemed to question his actions towards the end.

That might not have changed anything, it might not have lessened the man's sins by a great degree, but it was something.

Issei examined the date scrawled on the top of the memo paper; it was six months before the current date. Things had gone to hell for Project Rat King that long ago, and the Purifiers still hadn't killed off their rats?

' _No, of course they haven't._ ' Issei concluded, ' _They_ _wouldn't, not with the chance that the ratmen would actually follow through on their programming and attack Gremory-sempai and Sitri-kaichou. Well, can't let that happen. I'd better go and deal with the last burrow tomorrow._ '

He looked grimly at the remains of Midorikawa Nobuyuki. "Sorry, but I'm going to dethrone your king."

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 **Next Chapter: The Council of Thirteen**

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	8. The Council of Thirteen

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"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 8: The Council of Thirteen**

 _The Next Day, After School_

 _Hyōdō Issei's Room, Hyōdō Residence_

 **Name: Hyōdō Issei**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 10| Next Level: 2930 EXP**

 **Title: Oppai Baka**

 **HP: 500/500**

 **MP: 325/325**

 **STR: 75**

 **STA: 71**

 **DEX: 81**

 **INT: 29**

 **WIS: 24**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: 43**

 **Attribute Points: 0**

 **¥: 63740**

Staring at his status screen listlessly, Issei was wondering what to do here. He _had_ to eliminate the ratmen and their last burrow if he wanted to gain any form of lead on finding the Purifiers, not to mention eliminating a danger to himself and everyone else in town, but what worried him was the possibility that the last burrow on his map wasn't actually the last of them.

The previous den had clearly shown that the Purifier's mental programming was already coming undone on at least one level, so it was entirely possible, _likely_ even, that the little injunction against them leaving their burrows had been overcome as well.

If that was the case, then after clearing the 'final' burrow he would have absolutely no clue whether he'd managed to get all of them and where any remaining ratmen could have gone. Still, if the information that the deceased Head of Project Rat King had left in his last letter was accurate; if he managed to kill the ratman breeder he would be damning the ratmen to extinction. Plus, ratmen didn't seem to have a long lifespan, so the whole race would be dead in a couple of decades.

The fact that he would essentially be wiping out an entire race of at least semi-sentient beings did not sit well with the young Gamer.

Still, leaving such dangerous creatures wandering around Japan was not something Issei wanted to do. The ratmen had clearly shown they had no care or concern for human lives, if anything they seemed to actively desire either conquering or wiping out humanity and taking its place. He had to make sure to track down and wipe out the lot of them, otherwise who knew what they'd get up to?

' _Still…I'm contemplating genocide here!_ ' The Sekiryūtei thought with a sigh as he closed the window, _'I don't wanna be thinking about this heavy stuff! I wanna think about great things, like oppai!_ '

He couldn't even play any of his gal-games or H-Games to get in the mood for Oppai, because playing games whilst being the Gamer was…well, _boring_. Seriously, he couldn't play any without an indescribable feeling of boredom coming over him. It was a pity, because they had cost a pretty penny to buy in the first place.

"Ah, what a pain!" he muttered before sitting up. Lying back and staring into space wasn't going to do anyone any good. He might as well get started.

Heading down and telling his mother he was going for a walk, Issei headed out. The locator for the last ratman burrow was at the edge of town, at the entrance to an old bunker of some kind. Quite why there was a bunker here was a bit beyond Issei. Had his gamer power created it or had it been here the whole time? He hardly ever had a reason to venture to this section of Kuō and the few times he had, he'd never stayed for very long.

Shrugging at the mystery he couldn't be bothered to solve, the Sekiryūtei started down the steps to the large door that looked as if it had rusted shut decades ago.

"OK, I'm here…what now?" he muttered. Even with his improved strength, there was no _way_ he could pry open that door, which meant that there was no way the ratmen could do it either. This left a hidden passageway or a mechanism of some sort.

Tracing his hands along the walls and the door, he was eventually rewarded by finding a hidden switch under a thick sheet of moss a few feet to the right of the doorway. Pressing it, the entire door, including the doorframe and the wall it was a part of, sunk into the ground with the rasp of stone against stone. Then a window popped up before him.

 **[WARNING!]**

 **You are about to enter the last burrow of the ratmen, the [Primordial Lair of the Ratmen].**

 **This burrow contains the Ratman Breeder, the mother of their race. Should it be slain, the ratmen will be condemned to eventual extinction over the passing of the years. As such, they will muster the full strength of their entire species in order to kill you and defend the breeder.**

 **Minimum Level to undertake this Dungeon: LV10.**

 **Recommended Level: LV13.**

 **Do you wish to proceed?**

 **Y|N**

He hit 'Y'. Yes, he was under-levelled, but he really didn't have any other way to level up as of yet, so the choice wasn't his.

With an audible 'popping' noise, the invisible barrier across the doorway was removed…and then a viciously aggressive smell rolled over Issei, making him gag. It smelled like month-old sour milk, with skunk stink and rotten turds mixed in for extra flavour.

"Great good kami…!" he choked out, "What a _reek_!"

He stood there breathing through his mouth for a few minutes to better adjust to the incessant reek. He noted absently that he had lost about thirty or more HP just from the smell.

Eh?! Poison vapours! ?

 **As a result of repeated actions, you have acquired the skill [Poison Resistance]!**

 **[Poison Resistance] (Passive) [LV1, 45.04%]**

 **It is said that it is possible to develop resistance to the venom of a cobra by taking a small amount each day for years. In that same line of thought, you have endured a weak poison for several minutes and have started to build a resistance to it. The higher this skill is, the less damage poisonous or toxic vapours and liquids will do to you. This skill has no effect on [Venom] class poisons, however. That requires the skill [Venom Resistance].**

 **\- Reduces poison damage taken by 1.**

This was a skill that Issei could have happily lived his life without acquiring. Looking at it, he noticed with a twitching eye that the EXP for the skill was slowly ticking up just from him standing at the entrance. Soon enough…

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!**

Checking, that merely reduced the amount of damage he took from poison by another point. Fortunately, his **[Lesser HP Regeneration]** was already kicking in and restoring some of the HP he had lost.

Shaking his head, Issei armoured up and drew a pair of the ninjatō he had gotten his hands on during the last burrow raid. They were disposable weapons that he could use without concern…at least until he ran out of them.

Stepping down the stairs, he hesitated as the door ground back into position. Thankfully, there were torches, the kind you saw described in Dungeons and Dragons, lining the way down the stairway. The flames oozed out inky smoke that made Issei suspect that animal fat was used to fuel them.

Or human fat.

Shaking his head at the morbid, but all-too-likely, thought, the Sekiryūtei continued down the stairs, tense and ready for a sneak attack. He wouldn't put it past the ninja-eske ratmen of Clan Eshin to stage a sneak attack on him amidst the dim light of the torches.

" **[Force Absorption Field]** , **[Bronze Skin]**." He muttered as he brought his two main defensive spells online. It never hurt to be careful.

At the bottom of the stairs was, as usual, a round room with a chest in the centre of it. Opening it, Issei found three things in it; a skill book, a sword and a necklace. He decided to see what the sword was first.

It was a short sword, keeping with his current specialisation. He had watched a few movies set in Ancient Rome and recognised a gladius when he saw one. It was a rather beautiful sword with a polished blade and red-dyed wood inlaid with what looked like ivory on the hilt. When Issei tilted the blade, he saw a red tint to the metal.

 **[Bloodmetal Gladius]**

 **A gladius forged from Bloodmetal. It naturally synchronises with draconic energy and is a suitable channel for it and human magic. The true worth of this blade is the increased learning speed that its wielder will be under whilst wielding it.**

 **Durability: 80/80**

 **Short Sword**

 **Slash Damage: S+26**

 **Pierce Damage: S+17**

 **Effect: 1) While wielding the Bloodmetal Gladius, the wielder gains an additional 5% EXP to all Short Sword related skills, with a 10% chance with every skill level to randomly generate a Short Sword Skill. If one is generated, another will not be generated for at least 24 hours afterwards.**

 **2) Any magic ability used by the wielder that affects the blade has is effects raised by 5.**

"Whoa…!" he breathed. This was an excellent sword, even better than his [Rapscallion Wave Blade]. Quickly stowing it in his inventory for later, Issei moved on to the skill book.

 **[You have acquired the 'Lesser Golem Creation' skill book]**

 **Do you wish to learn this?**

 **Y|N**

Not at the moment. He put it away in his inventory. Last was the necklace. It was in the form of an eye, which was a bit creepy.

 **[Necklace of the Secret Hunter's Eye]**

 **A must-have item for anyone seeking to delve into a dungeon, this necklace allows the wearer to spot basic traps instantly, as well as raising the chance to detect intermediate level and above traps by 15%. Additionally, any hidden compartments and/or secret rooms have their entrances highlighted. There will be no hints on how to open the doors, however.**

Now this was what he was talking about! This was a really good item!

Issei paused. ' _Given_ _that my_ **[Gamer's Gear]** _seems to be giving me things that I will need, rather than anything else, I can foresee a lot of traps, secret passages and hidden compartments in my future. Just brilliant I don't think!_ '

Slipping the necklace on, he absently noticed that his **[Poison Resistance]** Skill had levelled up again. At least this poisonous environment was going to do wonders for _that_ skill.

Casually looking around the room briefly to double check that no secret passages existed here, Issei then moved out of the room and into the corridor. The passage was narrow and carved from rock, or so it seemed. This was impossible, as he wasn't down far enough in the earth to be in rock, but he just rolled with it. One more supposedly impossible thing like this wasn't going to unnerve him after all of the crap he had been through since that nutjob almost killed him.

' _Haa…it's amazing what a human can get used to if given enough time._ ' Issei mused wryly. He stepped into the first room on the other side of the corridor…and was confronted by fifty ratmen. Not just any ratmen, these were Ratman _Slaves_ , easily the most disposable troops that they had. Still, even ants could overwhelm an elephant with sufficient numbers.

 **Ratman Slave LV6**

 **[Scumbiter]**

"Like hell! Let's go!" Issei shouted and charged forwards bearing his blades. The poorly equipped Slaves, armed with clubs made from rotting wood and rusted copper swords and with only threadbare tunics covering their bent and deformed bodies, were not close to being a match for Issei one-on-one. Hell, even _five-on-one_.

Each swipe of his swords caused spurts of blood to jet from falling Ratman Slaves, shattering their pathetic excuses for weapons without so much as a pause. It barely took two lazy strikes to kill each one and he danced around the panicking and desperate Slaves with speed they couldn't hope to match. Even with the extra levels they had gained, these disposable minions were far and truly outclassed.

Unfortunately, the amount of EXP he received from each Slave reflected their cannon fodder status…a measly 10 EXP per Ratman Slave. While that would add up to 500 EXP once he'd finished killing them, it wasn't a lot given that Clanrats were usually gave at least 100 EXP when he killed them.

Of course, Issei wasn't having entirely his own way. He was being it by staves, whacked by clubs and clumsily stabbed by pitted swords. All of them bounced off of his armour, naturally, but the odd point of HP was lost with every strike. This was in addition to the continuing damage from the poisoned atmosphere. This raised a question for Issei; why was it that the ratmen were perfectly fine in this kind of environment while he was getting poisoned?

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

One of Issei's eyes twitched underneath his Menpō. This had to be the fastest any of his skills had ever levelled up. Just how poisonous _was_ this air?!

Once the last Ratman Slave fell…

 **You have slain Ratman Slave X50! You earn 500EXP!**

 **Do you wish to loot the bodies? Y|N**

Issei severely doubted that there would be anything remotely approaching decent on the bodies of these things, but he hit 'Y' anyway. If nothing else, he could sell the stuff for Yen.

As expected, the stuff was rubbish, all 'rotted', 'rusted', 'splintered', or 'rotted, rusted, _and_ splintered' if applicable. Altogether, he barely got ¥1000 for over 100 pieces of equipment. Barely enough to buy a couple of burger meal sets at a fast food place.

Looking around at the room full of ratman corpses, Issei had to sigh. He was getting far too used to this sort of thing.

Without a word, he examined the Durability status of his two swords and snorted. They were almost fully used up, with two or three DP left each. He stabbed them into the ground and pulled out two more from his inventory before heading out of the room through the other side of the room, leaving a scene of carnage and two swords behind to serve as a makeshift grave marker for the fallen fodder.

Pausing just inside the doorway, Issei's eyes narrowed as he spotted several glowing squares on the floor. He guessed that these were traps revealed by his new necklace, but were they the triggers or were they the actual traps?

Grabbing a stone from the floor, Issei lobbed it at the square furthest away from him. As soon as the stone touched the glowing square, the ceiling dropped down on it. Not the entire ceiling, but a four square foot, three meter long chunk of it.

"Okaaaayyyy….going to have to watch my step here." Issei sweatdropped. That would likely kill him, HP or not.

Stepping carefully around the golden squares, which were definitely pressure or touch-sensitive plates of some sort, the boy breathed a sigh of relief as he came to the end of the stones.

He _really_ should have known better.

As Issei entered the room at the end of the corridor, he was _itching_ for a fight. He had just gone through a maze full of traps of the likes of _Tomb Raider_ and the _Prince of Persia_ games. Pitfalls, walls that shot arrows, more collapsing ceilings, Warpfire traps, other more esoteric traps. There were even a few that he could have sworn had been ripped from the _God of War_ games.

Damn copyright-infringing rats!

The twenty-five Clanrats armed and armoured to the teeth with leather armour, bronze swords, numerous daggers and bucklers were very unfortunate indeed to come across him in that room, as he needed to vent some stress.

 **Clanrat Warrior LV8**

 **[Darkfang]**

They never stood a chance.

First, Issei bombarded them with his **[Earth Shot]** spell before wading in with his **[Bronze Skin]** and **[Force Absorption Field]** active. Whatever blows struck him bounced off of the combined force of his armour and his spells. Before long…

 **You have slain Ratman Clanrat Warriors X25! You gain 2500 EXP!**

 **Congratulation! You have levelled up! LV10-LV11!**

 **You have 5 Attribute Points to spend.**

 **[Earth Shot] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Ambidextrous] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

After looting the bodies and selling everything but the weapons, Issei once again abandoned the swords he bore, as they too were almost out of Durability. It was getting to the point where he was glad that he had stolen all those swords from the last place, because he was going through them at a terrific rate. On the other hand, they were crudely made, so maybe that was speeding up the rate of Durability consumption…?

He immediately placed the five points into INT, because he might need them to figure out these stupid traps and puzzles, even with the skill **[Puzzle Solving]**.

" _Still_ no good loot." He muttered absently as he gave the room a final once over to make sure there weren't any hidden spaces or doors there before heading out. Again, there was nothing. Seriously? Why give him the necklace if there wasn't going to be any goodies to find with it?

Looking into the corridor that led out of the room, and the numerous golden glowing sections that he could see, Issei scowled.

Oh, that's right; because this place was trapped to within an inch of his life, that's why!

Issei made his way through the maze of traps once again. There was no need to describe them; if you've seen one intricate and deadly array of traps, then generally, you have seen them all. He did raise his **[Evade]** and **[Puzzle Solving]** skills by a level though, which was just about the only good thing to happen. Oh, and his [Poison Resistance] skill had grown to _Level 6_ after he got hit with some kind of liquid poison on an arrow and he had chugged a Health Potion to aid his beleaguered **[Lesser HP Regeneration]** skill.

 **[Lesser HP Regeneration] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

And that happened. Moving along…

Pausing at the door into the next room, Issei spotted black fur and what looked like spears. Stormvermin. It made sense, as he seemed to be facing groups of enemies divided by type and in the order he had encountered them in the burrows. A fitting mechanic for the last dungeon of this series. He just hoped that he didn't have to fight Boneripper again, as fighting the mutant thing the first two times had been a colossal pain in the rear.

 **Stormvermin Footsoldier LV9**

 **[Pack Rat]**

Repeating his tactic from the Clanrats, Issei waded into them slicing and parrying blows as he went. The Stormvermin were even better equipped than the last time he had faced a squad of them, with [Crude Steel Armour] and [Crude Steel Halberds]. It still wasn't enough to offset Issei's determination to make them into his EXP.

 **You have slain [Stormvermin Footsoldier] X10! You earn 3000 EXP!**

That put the EXP from each Stormvermin at 300 each. Nice.

More generic loot from the ratmen and, yet again, no hidden doors, spaces or passages in the room. It was becoming clear that the sole reason he had been given the damn necklace was to see the low level traps. Talk about a let-down. Make no mistake; being able to see the annoying traps was a godsend, but not having any secret rooms to find was a bit of a downer.

Issei took his armour off for a moment and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Fighting so many ratmen one after another was so damn exhausting; especially with those damn passages full of deadly traps between them. It was mentally exhausting on top of the physical tiredness, likely the entire point of the whole setup.

Re-equipping his armour, the Sekiryūtei tossed the broken hilts of the third pair of ninjatō he'd used since he entered the burrow. Was the poison in the air corrosive to iron as well? It would explain why the crude imitation weapons were shattering like glass after only a single battle.

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV6-LV7!**

Suppressing his irritation at the reminder, Issei pulled out another pair of ninjatō from his inventory and started to advance once more.

 _Elsewhere…_

Rias Gremory frowned as a small magic circle appeared in the air before her. She and her darling servants had just finished killing a Stray Devil that they had been hunting for the last couple of hours and she had just about to order them to head back to their homes when this appeared. She recognised the symbol; it was a Sitri Circle, which likely meant Sona.

"Sona? What's the emergency?" she asked with a frown. Her childhood friend was as stubborn as she was and would never contact her at this time of night unless she and her Peerage had run into a more challenging foe than had been anticipated and she didn't have the raw power to take care of it alone. The Sitri Heiress had been hunting another Stray on the other side of Kuō, and it wasn't a powerful one either, so this was an unpleasant surprise.

" _Rias, can you feel that magic?_ " Sona's voice asked over the communications spell.

The Gremory Heiress reached out with her magic senses and frowned. Now that Sona had drawn her attention to it, there was an unusual build-up of magic in the section of Kuō that her friend was supposed to be hunting in. And by 'unusual', Rias meant that there was any kind of magic build-up whatsoever there. One reason why her brother and Sona's sister had selected Kuō for their jointly-held territories was that they were practically the only supernaturals in the entire city, although the Fallen had been seen recently around an abandoned church in the south of the city. Oh, there was the odd Stray Devil every now and then, and Koneko had reported some itinerant Yōkai passing through every so often, but Kuō was very much the sticks as far as the supernatural was concerned.

"Yes, I can." She answered her friend, "I take it that it isn't that Stray you were hunting?"

" _We took care of it a handful of moments ago._ " Sona answered dismissively, " _She was inordinately cowardly, so it took some time to pin her down. I think this matches the odd surges of magic that our caped friend has been making whenever he raids the dens of these ratmen. I think it's time we sat down with him and found out what the hell is going on here._ "

"Agreed." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess said with a sharp nod that went unseen by her friend, "Wait for my Peerage and I to show up and we'll track down this magic source."

" _Already done, Rias._ " Her friend said somewhat smugly, " _We're standing outside the old bomb shelter on the eastern edge of Kuō. It's emitting magic like a fountain, but I have Tsubaki containing it. I blasted the door down, but the air coming out is poisonous. Not enough to affect devils, but a human would be dead in a few minutes…a_ regular _human, anyway._ "

Rias' frown grew deeper. The masked and caped person who was rampaging through their territory after these ratmen was becoming more mysterious the more she found out about him, rather than less. Fighting ability with a sword that grew verifiably within what had to be a relatively short timeframe, magical ability that seemed to be based in earth magic and barriers at least, a nigh-paranoiac desire to keep his identity concealed and now either the willingness to dive into an enemy stronghold filled with poison without care or doing so with the ability to ignore or severely mitigate said poison…she honestly didn't know quite what to make of him.

Chivvying her servants to hurry, Rias teleported them to Sona's location. Standing there was Sona's much larger Peerage. The Student Council Vice-President and Sona's [Queen], Tsubaki, stood in the middle of a magic circle that was keeping the toxic air contained within a bubble around the building. Standing gaping at them next to his new master was Saji Genshirō.

"Saji-kun, don't stare." Sona said, a small hint of amusement in her voice.

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-!" the newly Reincarnated Devil stammered, " _Gremory-sempai's_ a devil _too_?!"

"You just reincarnated him this morning, didn't you?" Rias shook her head in amusement, "A Stray Devil hunt on his first night as a devil is a bit much, Sona."

"He didn't have to do anything but watch, Rias." Her friend sniffed as she adjusted her glasses with one finger, "With these ratmen around, I didn't feel that it was safe to leave him alone with his family."

"What Sacred Gear does he have?" the redhead asked curiously.

" **[Absorption Line]** , one of the Sacred Gears holding a soul fragment of the former Dragon King Vritra." Sona answered somewhat smugly. While not a Longinus-level Sacred Gear, _any_ dragon-type Sacred Gear was a boon, even the lowly **[Twice Critical]**. One of the Sacred Gears holding Vritra, a former member of the Five Dragon Kings and the first Evil Dragon, was quite the step up from a **[Twice Critical]** and the Sitri Heiress was right to be proud of getting her hands on its wielder.

"Congratulations, Sona." Rias said honestly. She was a bit jealous, but Sona had claimed him first as per their agreement, so there was nothing to be done about it. Besides, Sona had almost been forced into an arranged marriage like her own. She had faced the man in question in a game of chess with the engagement on the line and won, but there was no telling if her family would try to pull something like that again, so having a suitably powerful piece in her Peerage was a good trump card to hide. "So what has happened since you arrived here?"

Sona nodded. "Well, the rest of my Peerage is securing the area from possible human investigation. It isn't likely in such a remote part of the town, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Tsubaki's containing the air from the bunker inside this dome, and Saji and I have been overseeing things."

 _'As expected of Sona; every 't' crossed and 'i' dotted in the most efficient manner possible._ ' The Gremory Heiress nodded to herself.

"Good. So then, my Peerage, me, you and Saji-kun will plumb the depths of this place to discover clues?" Rias deduced. If there was one thing that Sona's Peerage suffered from, it was a lack of power-type fighters. Almost all of them were technique-types, which suited Sona's strategist personality, as she preferred to outthink her opponents rather than overpower them with force. In this situation, having people who could simply punch their way through problems like Koneko could or blast them with powerful thunder magic like Akeno could was to the advantage.

Kiba could even count here, even although he was a technique-type as well. His Sacred Gear, **[Sword Birth]** , could make as many of any kind of sword he could imagine, as well as give them any magical ability or attribute he wanted, except for Holy and Light. Using that, he could create a flame-enchanted sword to melt through the ice of a Yuki Onna or a wood attribute sword to devour the nutrients of an earth golem.

"Yes, although it is a shame that Tsubaki is the only one who can maintain this dome." Sona sighed, " **[Mirror Alice]** would be very useful down there."

Rias agreed. _That_ Sacred Gear rendered power-types useless, as it used their own overwhelming strength against them. If you didn't know that Tsubaki possessed it, it would send your attack, physical or otherwise, right back at you with its strength doubled. It had four weaknesses though. One, it was unidirectional, meaning that it could only block an attack that came from a single direction at a time. Two, the user had to purposefully activate it. If Tsubaki wasn't aware of an attack and didn't activate her Sacred Gear, it wouldn't be reflected. Three, she could only generate a single mirror at once. Four, it could not be used consecutively. If she used it to block an attack, she would have to wait at least a few minutes for it to recharge before activating it again.

"That's what you get for not getting your [Bishops] soon after your [Queen]." Rias teased her. Saji stood to the side looking clueless.

Sona pouted and turned her nose up at her friend.

Chuckling, Akeno led the way to the door. Sona had obviously exaggerated when she said she had 'blasted' the door out of the way; what she had done _instead_ was to make a large blade of water and carve the doorframe out of the concrete it was set into. It was a chilling demonstration of her imagination, as she had obviously used her power to shape the water blade into something approximating a monomolecular edge. _That_ could cut through almost anything.

Although the bodies of devils were far more resilient that those of a human, making them immune to weak poisons, this did nothing for the cloying smell that wafted out of the gaping hole in the wall. Akeno's nose wrinkled in disgust and she quickly cast a deodorising and smell filtration spell on herself and the entire group, starting with Koneko, who had a catlike sense of smell as a former Nekoshō.

As soon as Koneko set foot in the bunker she froze before shuddering.

"Koneko? What's the matter?" Rias asked worriedly.

"So much life…" the petit [Rook] choked out, "Twisted. Corrupted. _Wrong_. Many rats. One human being. He kills the rats."

"Are you sensing them via your Yōki sensory abilities?" The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess breathed, "Or…is it _that_?"

"Second." The former Nekoshō gulped, "Buchou, please…I _can't_ …!"

"You stay up here and guard Tsubaki." Her [King] ordered briskly. Koneko nodded thankfully and retreated from the bunker at a fast walk.

"Still?" Sona muttered to Rias.

"Still." She whispered back. Koneko had been terrified of becoming like her sister, Kuroneko no Kuroka, ever since she had slain her master and become a Stray Devil. She refused to practice Senjutsu or Yōjutsu and almost never allowed her tail and ears out around others, even Rias. One theory that some devils had floated around was that using actively using Senjutsu in the Underworld, with its negative emotional environment, was what had driven her mad enough to murder her master. Just in case, Koneko consistently and immediately removed herself from any environment that made her ability to sense negative emotions to go into overdrive.

What had caught Rias' ear in what Koneko had said earlier was that she could feel the ratmen. In the previous dens, she hadn't had any problems because the caped man had mostly killed all of the ratmen before they had arrived.

That being the case, had they arrived part-way through his assault on this lair?

Kiba took over Koneko's traditional position in the lead, with Akeno following behind him. Rias, Sona and Saji followed them in that order. Descending down the flight of stairs, which was about the height of a one-story house, they entered the first room of the burrow, which had the expected open chest.

"There's one of these at the entrance to all of these burrows." Rias commented as she looked at the open chest.

"Odd…" Sona frowned.

They moved through the corridor leading out of the room until they reached the next room, which made Saji throw up in a corner. The sight of over fifty dead ratmen sprawled around it almost made Sona nauseous as well, so she didn't blame her newly reincarnated [Pawn] for being unable to prevent himself from throwing up at the scene of such carnage.

"These ratmen suffered from some sort of degenerative mutation when they were alive; their arms and legs are thin and weak and they're somewhat bowlegged as well." She managed to say.

Kiba knelt down and examined a couple of the corpses. "These things never stood a chance against whoever killed them. Despite their numbers, this was a one-sided _massacre_."

Seeing Kiba's tightly controlled face, Rias winced inside. Being the sole survivor of a massacre himself, whoever did this, likely the red armoured man, had not endeared himself to Kiba.

"Kiba, these ratmen wanted to attack us." She said gently, "They also seem to want to attack the man who did this. They could have run, but they threw themselves at him, from the looks of it. He had little choice…as would we, in his position."

The blond boy looked at her heatedly for a moment before sighing and nodding in acquiescence.

"Kiba-kun, these swords here…" Sona said, pointing at the pair of blades driven into the ground in where Rias would roughly estimate the centre of the room to be, "What do you make of them?"

The [Knight] walked over and inspected them briefly. "They're trash. Cheap steel full of impurities poured into a mould and cooled rapidly. Whoever made this was either completely unconcerned with the quality of the sword that came out or a complete novice at swordsmithing. Whoever left them here made the right choice; they're almost ready to fall apart, and not just because of the shoddy workmanship of the swords. The poison in the air is corroding and dissolving them rapidly. Any metal not protected by magic or forged with magic is going to be eaten alive and fall apart in short order."

Without being ordered, with a snap of her fingers, Akeno cast a magic circle over the group that protected their metallic objects from being corroded.

"Thank you, Akeno." Rias nodded at her old friend, "Now, let us continue on. We have to catch up to the one responsible for this and find out the truth of what he knows."

They advanced on the exit before Kiba waved them to a stop. "Traps." He said, "A lot of them. They're fairly basic pressure switches, but judging by that hunk of rock over there, they'll bring the ceiling down on us if we step on them. Odd… _these_ ones haven't been tripped, but a lot more further down the way have been."

"Probably more complex ones that he couldn't spot." Sona theorised.

Rias and Sona worked their magic to neutralise the traps before the group continued, passing by arrows, destroyed blade traps and even having to fly over the occasional pitfall trap. The defences on this place felt like they had been designed by a paranoiac with limited resources and a lot of free time.

The second room they came to was a smaller repeat of the first. Half as many ratmen as before were piled up in it and there were lumps of rock intermixed with them.

"Hmm? Oh, didn't I tell you? Our mystery man has earth magic." Rias answered when Sona queried her, "He used a rock bullet spell against that ratman flesh golem when last I saw him, which is around about the right size for these piles of loose rock."

Sona raised an eyebrow. Earth magic was not a common field for magicians, be they devils or humans. It lacked versatility and was generally used defensively, if at all. That this man was using it offensively was a surprise, to say the least. Then again, it could be that needs must when demons drive as the old saying goes; ergo, he was using what he had access to because it was all he had. It made sense for someone who had admitted to Rias that he was relatively new to the supernatural world.

The passage through to the next room had even more traps than the last one, including flamethrowers. Flamethrowers that packed one hell of a punch with their green fire. And the spike traps. And the one blade trap that would have taken Kiba's foot off had he been a second slower.

"I am beginning to hate whoever designed this infernal passageway." The blond boy growled as he shook his leg slightly, making sure that he hadn't lost anything.

"I'm not exactly happy with them either." Akeno eyed the end of her long ponytail, which had been singed by a sudden burst of green fire from the last fire trap. Evidently it had somehow refilled its reserves since it was last used, because it had belched fire as soon as Kiba had passed by it, aimed straight at Akeno. She had shielded in time, but the tip of her hair had been caught by the fire.

"These brutes are almost as large as that ratman we found at the end of the first burrow!" Rias exclaimed sharply when they came across the sprawled forms of the Stormvermin in the third room.

"Look here." Kiba said with a frown as he knelt next to two familiar-looking hilts, "This makes _six_ of these knock-off swords he's gone through. He used them until they broke with this pair."

"He had a better sword with him when we last saw him." Rias frowned, "That short sword with a straight edge on one side and a wavy one on the other. It didn't look magical, so…maybe he knows or suspects about the environment here and is using these throwaway swords instead of risking his best sword until it is necessary to use it?"

"Makes sense." Sona agreed.

"But…when we saw him last, he didn't have any sheaths on him." Kiba said slowly, "It was as if he were pulling the swords out of thin air. A minor dimensional Sacred Gear, perhaps? **[Bag of Carrying]** or the **[Pocket Dimension]** , maybe?"

"I didn't sense the activation of a Sacred Gear from him." Rias shook her head before reconsidering, "There again, that damn magic barrier between us was strong enough to block a blast of my Power of Destruction and a punch from Koneko, so maybe that interfered with my ability to sense things? We'll find out when we find him. How long ago was he here, Kiba?"

"Less than five minutes." The [Knight] replied instantly, barely glancing at the massacre scene around him.

"Good. It's time we found him." Rias said briskly. Over with Saji, she could see Sona succinctly filling him in on what had been happening in Kuō over the last few weeks as they walked.

The passage was, as expected, full of traps. Their quarry had clearly been through here, setting off some of the more tricky traps, but leaving the more obvious ones untouched. Clearly, he was learning some of the signs of the more commonly used traps that these ratmen used.

"Buchou." Kiba said after a minute or so of walking, "It's one of those forcefields again."

Rias walked over to stand next to her servant and scowled. The path branched in two ahead, with one entrance blocked off by that jade green forcefield, which was presumably where their mystery man was.

Sona also came up and peered at the forcefield. "Well, I think I might have an explanation as to why it resisted your magic, Rias. Have a look at the corners of the doorway."

Looking, the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess saw bronze spikes jutting out of them, evidently a focus for the barrier.

"Those spikes are linked, in all likelihood, to whatever mystical power source that powers the entire base." Sona theorised, "I suspect that the one you encountered before was the same. If it has an entire base's worth of magic power reserves to draw upon, then even the vaunted Power of Destruction would fail if you only put in enough power as you thought necessary to break it."

"And even if I didn't hold back here, the explosion and backlash from it could bring the ceiling down on us." Rias finished, "Just… _wonderful_. Well, we seem to be being herded, so let us enter the lion's den and find out what is there."

"Is that…a good idea?" Saji asked hesitantly, "I mean, whoever these ratmen are, they obviously do not want anyone to enter their base here. Shouldn't we call for reinforcements or something?"

" **No.** " both [Kings] said immediately, making the blond boy wither and fall silent, much to the amusement of Akeno and Kiba.

' _I_ _will not ask Onii-sama/Onee-sama for help!_ ' the two High-Class Devils thought in unison. Images of possible mass-scale destruction from an angry crimson devil and an enraged 'Mahō Shōjo' danced through their minds and firmed their resolve further.

Without another word, the group headed up the open passage. It completely failed to surprise them when another forcefield crackled into existence once Saji cautiously stepped over the threshold.

The passage was, surprisingly, not trapped, and led to a staircase that twisted around to another level. That was…

"An observation booth?" Sona said in bemusement. The room was about twice the length of a classroom at Kuō Academy, with numerous small seats that were just the right size for ratmen to sit at dotted all over the place on raised platforms, thirteen of them all told. All were empty. They faced a large window looking down over a largish arena that resembled the two Rias' Peerage had seen before.

Standing in it were five of the most disgusting monsters they had ever seen, rats the size of ogres, with drooling maws full of sharp teeth and long claws the length of short swords on their arms. Long tails capped with blades of metal lashed out behind them.

And before them? Before them stood a figure wielding two of the imitation ninjatō that they had seen in the first two rooms. A brown cloak hung from his shoulders and he was clad in red armour on his chest, arms, legs and head.

"What in the name of the Maō _are_ those things?!" Sona gasped.

"He fought them before, when we first met him at the first arena." Rias said with a deep breath, "But my Peerage and I saw him fight and defeat a much larger one that had been made into a flesh golem."

"We should go and help him." the Sitri Heiress said with a frown, "No matter his skill, five of those monsters at once is too much."

"Unfortunately, there's another one of those damned barriers outside the glass." Akeno put in, nodding at the slight green tinge to the window. Both Rias and Sona clicked their tongues in frustration.

"Sona, let's start analysing the barrier for weaknesses." Rias suggested, "I don't care if it's powered by a nuclear reactor, it _has_ to have a weak point. If we can pinpoint that and hit it together, you, me and Akeno, then we should be able to pierce through it."

"A solid plan, as there's no sign of any power cables or anything we could sever in here." Sona nodded, "Let's get started…oh, my."

Down below, the first two Rat Ogres hurled themselves forward at the armoured man, but slowed down noticeably once they got within a certain range of him. This gave the man the chance to swipe both of his swords in a scissor-like motion, cutting off the attacking claw of one of the attacking monstrosities. He then ducked under the swipe from the other one and severed its tail before leaping back and stamping his foot for some reason.

The two overgrown rats bellowed in pain as blood spurted from their severed limbs.

"That was _brutal_!" Saji exclaimed, looking a bit green from the gore.

"No, he's simply fighting _smart_." Sona corrected as she absently created several circles to analyse the barrier, "Getting a solid, killing blow on one of those monstrosities with a short sword would be extremely difficult. Instead he's going to try to bleed them to death, similar to the old Indian torture technique, the Death of A Thousand Cuts. If they keep letting him wound them like that, it'll work too."

One of the injured Rat Ogres, the one missing its tail, leapt forwards again to try and avenge its lost limb. As it landed in front of the target of its fury, the ground beneath it gave way and it fell into a pit wider that it could stretch its arms with a yowl of surprise.

"A pitfall trap? There?" Rias raised an eyebrow before the other shot up in realisation, "OH! That's what the stamp was for! He must have used his earth magic to create it when he fell back. How clever."

"I didn't see a magic circle." Sona frowned. Magicians and devils that relied on magic circles were quite common. Doing so made it easier to cast the spells, they could be cast almost instantly for a very negligible loss in power and it was almost impossible to stop someone from casting it. Compared with using long-winded incantations, the advantage was easy to understand.

There was a level beyond those two though; those who could cast spells without needing either an incantation or a magic circle. Angels could summon forth their light spears like that because it was as natural to them as breathing, and it was that natural ease that was necessary in order to cast spells the same way. Sona could name only three devils her own age who could manage even one spell without incantations or magic circles as a crutch, and she was one of them.

He obviously had to have a Sacred Gear of some kind, so could it be one that allowed him to cast magic without relying on incantations or magic circles? She had read up on the various Sacred Gears, but there were so many that, for all she knew, there could easily be one that allowed the user to cast magic without any form of focus.

When the Rat Ogre clambered out of the pit, it looked horrible. Its right arm had several two-foot long rock spikes embedded into it, as did its left leg. Blood was pouring from the wounds, but the beast, crazed with pain, didn't seem to care as it charged in again. This time, the other four Rat Ogres decided to help it out.

The watching devils were treated to the sight of the armoured man dodging and evading the swipes of five angry ogre-sized rats. Every time he did so though, he counterattacked with one or both of his swords, leaving scored down the flanks and arms of the beasts that wept blood.

"He's good." Kiba remarked.

"Oh? A surprising comment from you, Kiba." Rias said playfully. Having been trained by Okita Sōji, one of her brother's [Knights], Kiba was a very skilled swordsman.

"He's about as good as I was a month after I started learning from Okita-sensei." The blond boy stated, "He must be pushing himself insanely hard in order to progress from the complete amateur I saw in his cuts at the first ratman den we found."

A month under the insane tutelage of one of the best swordsmen in the Shinsengumi was more than enough to turn anyone with a lick of talent into a half-decent swordsman. While Rias was a modestly competent swordswoman herself, she trusted Kiba's ability to gauge the abilities of other sword-users more than her own. To her, he looked more than competent.

Abruptly, the swords in his hands shattered like glass, leaving barely two inches of the blades left.

"I knew that was going to happen." Kiba said grimly, "Let's see what he does now…"

What the man did was a surprise. He leapt over the swipe of one Rat Ogre and then used its muscled arm as a springboard to sail towards one of the relatively fresh ogres. He took the brute off guard, which allowed him to stab both sword remnants right into the Rat Ogre's eyes, blinding it, before leaping back and out of range. The beast shrieked and roared as it flailed around looking for the one who had wounded it so badly.

"Now _that_ is what I'd classify as 'brutal'," Sona informed Saji, who was now looking noticeably green again.

Down on the arena floor, the man reached into thin air and pulled out another pair of badly made ninjatō from something.

"That's no Sacred Gear." Rias said with another frown, "No spell either. Any ideas, Sona?"

"None. Whatever he's using isn't a conventional dimensional spell or Sacred Gear." The Sitri Heiress answered with a frown that matched her childhood friend's own.

The blinded Rat Ogre was still flailing around, half berserk from the pain of losing its eyes. It clawed two of the other Rat Ogres, causing heavy bleeding on their backs from its razor-sharp claws, making them turn on it.

With two of his enemies distracted, the armoured man launched an attack on the remaining two, cutting with both swords rapidly as he danced around them. The Rat Ogres were slow and one thing the armoured man had made certain to do was to not stay in the same place long enough for the oversized rats to get ahold of him. Even their blade-tipped tails couldn't touch him.

"He knows how to fight enemies larger than him rather well." Rias remarked to Akeno.

"Ufufufufufufufu…it certainly seems so." The former Nephilim replied with a chuckle, "But Rias, strength to one side, he seems to be more powerful than those…things."

Rias agreed with her [Queen]. The Rat Ogres were big and physically powerful. That was all they had. They were slow, dumb and feral, easy to avoid, easy to trick and easy to strike. Whoever this person was, they clearly knew how to take full advantage of those facts.

In a few minutes, both of the Rat Ogres the armoured man had been attacking slammed to the ground, dead. The blind Rat Ogre was ripped to pieces by the other two at roughly the same time, leaving the other two free to attack their original target, starting the deadly dance of death again.

"How can he keep fighting those things so calmly?" Saji asked with a half-awed, half scared expression on his face, "If it was me, I'd have panicked a long time ago with monsters like that looming over me."

"A good question." Sona nodded, "Ask him when we meet him."

As they had been watching, the two High-Class Devils had been working on the barrier analysis. Sona frowned before a grin plucked at her mouth.

"Found it. Looks like the weakest point of the barrier is slightly off-centre to the right." She announced, "Rias, Akeno, get ready. Fire a full-power blast at the marked location."

A Sitri circle appeared at the exact location she referred to at a click of her fingers.

Rias pooled Power of Destruction in her hands, while Akeno crackled all over with lightning. Sona, on the other hand, merely adjusted her glasses as she pooled water in her free hand. As one, the three female Devils unleashed their attacks at the target point, striking it within seconds of each other. Black-tinged crimson Power of Destruction was wreathed in yellow thunder magic and surrounded by water as cold as ice as they bore into the centre of the barrier's weak point. The glass, a good two-inches thick, had shattered and melted away in the first second of the magic barrage.

"Keep it up!" Sona grunted, "It's starting to fail!"

Indeed, the green barrier was straining at the edges to keep up with the requirements of stopping the power of three Devils, two High-Class and one Mid-Class. Green lightning arced off it in places and holes appeared around the point of impact before being sealed up sloppily.

After a few more moments of tense struggle, the barrier finally dissipated, the emitters melting into a puddle of boiling metal from the strain they had been under. The three female Devils smirked in satisfaction before they noticed one, vital detail.

The armoured man was gone. The corpses of the five Rat ogres were there, but not the man they were after. Another pair of doors stood open at the other end of the arena, one blocked by another crackling forcefield.

"I am becoming sick of _constantly_ falling short of catching up with this man!" Rias pouted adorably.

"Not something you're accustomed to, eh Rias?" Sona teased her, but she was irked too.

"Let's go." The Gremory Heiress sighed, considering herself mightily generous by _not_ spanking her old friend for that quip. Yes, her body was naturally seductive by nature and that usually meant she had to avoid getting men coming on to her rather than try to get them on her to come on to her, but there was no need to be snarky!

The group entered the other door way, the forcefield crackling into place behind them.

 _With Issei_

 **You have slain Rat OgreX5! You earn 2600 EXP!**

 **[Short Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Close Combat Evasion] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **[Close Combat Evasion] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Evade] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV7-LV8!**

 **[Lesser HP Regeneration] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Force Reduction Field] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Bronze Skin] has levelled up! LV2-LV3!**

 **As a result of a specific action, the skill [Improvised Weapon Mastery] has been learned!**

 **[Improvised Weapon Mastery] (Passive) [LV1, 00.00]**

 **Most weapon disciplines deal with using specific weapons that are in a uniform shape and size. Not so much with this skill! With this, you can pick up just about anything and use it as a weapon! Some things, most noticeably soft things like tissues and pillows, cannot be used with this skill and fall under [Improbable Weapons Mastery]. All items applicable for this skill will be updated with an entry saying so from this point onwards.**

 **\- Raises damage of any item classed as an [Improvised Weapon] by 1.**

As Issei trudged through the passage, which was thankfully devoid of traps, he was quite pleased with the way his skills had levelled up over that last fight. There again, he would rather not have to fight five Level 9 Rat Ogres at once again. He had almost panicked half a dozen times before his **[Gamer's Mind]** kicked in and enforced some calm onto him.

What had worried him, however, was the bulging barrier at the top of the arena. Had something trying to break through it into the arena, or were the ratmen trying to freak him out? Whichever it was, he hadn't stuck around to find out. Collecting any loot at a run, he had entered the door and the forcefield went up behind him just as the large one broke.

Reminded of the loot, Issei brought that screen to the forefront. Most of it was rather gross; claws, fangs and the like, but one item caught his eye.

 _X2 Rare Candy_

He halted and one eye twitched. Was he a _Pokémon_ now?! In the game, Rare Candy was used to immediately raise the level of a Pokémon by one per candy. As per the name, they were relatively hard to come by and should be used sparingly depending on what Pokémon you were raising at the time.

But he was no damn Pokémon!

 **[Rare Candy]**

 **Rare Item**

 **Consumable Item**

 **As you think, this sweet (which tastes lovely, by the way) automatically raises your level by one. On the downside, it resets your level progress counter to zero. Up to you if you want to eat it or not.**

The other eye twitched in sync with his first one. That almost decided it; there _was_ some sort of intelligence in his **[Gamer's Gear]** and it was a snarky bastard!

He was _going_ to find a way to talk to it, just like he had Ddraig, if for no other reason than to punch it in the mouth!

Bringing them out, Issei saw that they were about half the size of a jawbreaker and were pastel pink. This was a tough situation…should he eat them and raise his level to the recommended level for this dungeon? That would wipe out the nice chunk of EXP he'd gotten, both from the Rat Ogres and from some of the Clanrats, which would be a shame.

He checked how much EXP he had to go until he levelled up and discovered that it was less than a thousand. Well, that would be a crying shame if he wasted all that effort! He'd store them again and only eat them if he was in serious trouble.

Mind made up, he placed them in his inventory and carried on walking down the path ahead of him.

It took a couple of minutes, but he finally reached a large ornate door that bore a giant horned rat, surrounded in a circle by thirteen odd-looking symbols. Clan symbols, he realised. Touching the horned rat symbol made the outer ring of symbols light up in clockwise succession before the door split in half and opened inwards.

"Come into my web, said the spider to the fly…" Issei whispered before he drew two new swords from his inventory. He only had a dozen or so left. Damn this corrosive air!

Advancing into the new chamber, he saw that he stood at the top of one of five sets of stairs leading down to a raised dais in the centre, one that held a table set with thirteen seats around it, accompanied by thirteen banners hung above them.

"The Council of Thirteen." Issei muttered, remembering the Deathmaster saying something about how he had slain one of them already.

Cautiously descending the stairs, the Sekiryūtei felt his nerves singing with tension. Of any room he had ever been in, this one screamed 'TRAP!' to him the clearest. If the ratmen set Jezailiers to snipe at him from the top of the outer rim of the room while he was in the centre, he'd be helpless to guard against all of them.

When he reached the table, he blanched under his mask. There were dead ratmen bodies around the table, twelve of them. All of them had had their throats slit. They had been assassinated, and at least a day ago, judging by the dryness of the bloodstains.

"Snikch…!" he growled. The Master Assassin of Clan Eshin had murdered the rest of the Council of Thirteen, including his own boss judging by the shadowy clothes born by one of the bodies. But why?

"Silly man-thing!" a squeaky voice cackled from behind him. Issei whirled around to see Teeksqueak, the Warlock Engineer who had reanimated the body of Boneripper to attack him as a Flesh Golem. The cybernetic ratman stood at the top of the set of stairs opposite from the set Issei had come from. Flanking him on either side were two teams of Jezailiers.

"This was Snikch's doing, at your behest, I am guessing." Issei said neutrally, gesturing at the Council table with one sword.

"Correct." Teeksqueak smirked rattily at him, "The old rats were getting too fat and lazy, so the next generation decided to…have them retire."

Some retirement.

"How typical of a rat king, not wanting to get your paws dirty." Issei remarked with disdain.

"The leader's place is in the rear-rear, man-thing." The Warplock Engineer sneered back at him, "You will make an _excellent_ scapegoat to blame their 'tragic' deaths on. A thirty heartbeat moment of silence will be held in their honour."

A rat's heartbeat was very fast, if memory served Issei correctly. A thirty heartbeat length of time would be ten, maybe twenty seconds at most.

"I can see that you're just _broken up_ over this." He deadpanned.

"Hehehehe…putting up with those old rats for two years…you have _no idea_ of my pain, man-thing!" Teeksqueak snarled, "Kill-kill him!"

At the order, the gunner teams raised their weapons to point at Issei, who just sighed and deactivated **[Bronze Skin]**. He was running low on MP, so only keeping up **[Force Reduction Field]** was the most sensible course of action here.

"I've killed over three-hundred of your kind, Teeksqueak." He said softly, "If you want a fight…then you've _got_ one!"

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 **Next Chapter: The Ratman Breeder**

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	9. The Ratman Breeder

**Author's Note: OK, so here we are at chapter 9. To re-emphasize this to my readers, Iseei WILL become a Devil at some point in this story. If you do not like this, I am sorry. But again, this is my story, so it follows what I want it to do. Also can each person who leaves a guest review please restrict themselves to a single review per chapter. Please and thank you in advance.**

 **Check my Profile for my writing schedule. Before you PM me or ask me in a review!**

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Read, review and check out my other stories.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 9: The Ratman Breeder**

The roar of the Jezails firing galvanised Issei into motion even as the Warpstone-infused bullets left the barrels of the long rifles. Bringing his swords forward in a cross block, he deployed a **[Lesser Barrier Shield]** using each blade as a focus, layering them so that when the first shield failed, as it would, the second would catch the bullets.

It worked exactly as he intended it to. The two bullets pierced through the first layer of the shimmering red and green barrier, shattering it easily but not before robbing them of enough power so that the second barrier managed to stop them… _barely_. It was covered in cracks and the points of impact were noticeably indented.

Still, they'd done what Issei needed.

Before the warped bullets even hit the ground, the Sekiryūtei was already charging forward forwards, shattering the remnants of his barrier as he broke his block and charged forward. Issei refused to give the Jezailiers enough time to reload, and once he was close he could eliminate both teams quickly before focusing on the warped Warp-tech specialist.

However, his plans were significantly derailed when Teeksqueak reached into his robe with his normal hand and produced a long-barrelled pistol version of a Jezail before quickly aiming it in his direction.

' _Aw_ _hell._ '

Using every bit of his strength, Issei leapt forward just as the Warplock Engineer pulled the trigger. He was _just_ lucky and fast enough, as the bullet screamed over the top of his head, scraping away shards of his helmet as he dived below the shot.

Still, rolling back to his feet, he was steps away from the Jezailiers, who were frantically trying to bring their weapons to bear after reloading them. Before they could, Issei was in amongst them, striking out with both swords in a flurry of flashing metal. Up close, neither set of ratmen had a chance against him, neither carrying any form of melee weapon they could draw in time. Even when one of his swords broke after decapitating the second rat, the other two still fell with a single strike each, one with the jagged remnant jammed into their throat and the other with their throat cut open.

 **You have slain X2 [Warplock Jezailier Teams]! You gain 850 EXP!**

" **[Warp Lightning]!** " Teeksqueak screeched as he pointed his crude cybernetic arm at Issei. Several small blades suddenly sprouted from grooves going down the arm before sickly green electricity seemed to surge through them, dancing down the limb and filling the room with an eerie glow. An instant later, the lightning later seemed to coalesce along the tips of the limb's clawed finger before firing at Issei.

There was a reason why the phrase 'lightning fast' was a thing. It takes less than a second for electricity to travel between point A and point B and that meant Issei had next to no time to put up a defence after the attack was fired, though thankfully the build-up gave him just enough time to raise his remaining sword in front of him and deploy another **[Lesser Barrier Shield]**.

It wasn't enough.

The shield barely managed to hold off the attack for a second before shattering into motes of light, the eldritch lightning slamming into Issei's chest and sending him flying back, over the circular table and into one of the corpses resting in its stone throne.

That was _very_ gross, he had to note.

 **You have lost 105 HP!**

That was the most amount of HP he'd lost at one time ever! What the hell kind of spell was _that_?!

With a grunt, Issei scrambled to his feet, drawing a knife from his inventory with his free hand and throwing it at Teeksqueak, who was wrestling with his arm, which was still sparking, and cursing. Apparently using **[Warp Lightning]** messed up his arm for a while? Good to know.

The blade sank into the flesh of the shoulder of the Warplock Engineer's wholly flesh and blood arm, making him screech in agony. The sadistic rodent didn't seem to have much of a tolerance for pain.

"DIE!" the Engineer snarled, grabbing a length of wood from his waist. It had a wavy blade on top of it…a knife? No, knives don't extend by half a meter. A bladed staff then, because that was _not_ a spear. Spears did _not_ have blades growing all over its length.

Hurriedly pulling a second sword from his inventory, Issei clashed with Teeksqueak. He ground his teeth as a residual charge from the unnatural lightning spell crackled across Teeksqueak and down the blades. It hurt like hell, but he could push through it.

 **You lose 30 HP!**

Compared to Issei, Teeksqueak was clumsy and downright amateurish when it came to armed combat, almost as if the ratman had never done more than learn how to carry the thing without cutting himself.

Which, Issei realised as he easily batted aside a clumsy swing, might be the case. The Warplock Engineer seemed to be a spellcaster first and foremost, and thus expected to blast his enemies from afar. More than that, Teeksqueak's every action in the few times they'd met before had screamed pure arrogance, and someone who believed themselves an invincible spellcaster would never bother learning how to defend himself up close and personal.

It would be like admitting that an enemy could possibly get through their magical attacks and traps, something that their ego would never accept.

 **[Gamer's Mind]** was very useful for making well-reasoned deductions.

' _That's_ _going to be his last mistake._ ' The Sekiryūtei thought with a savage grin. Wielding both swords in a flurry of cuts and stabs, Issei slowly chipped away at the Warplock Engineer's health bit by bit while dodging and parrying the erratic flailing of the bladed staff.

After several moments an opportunity presented itself. Deflecting a trust from Teeksqueak's staff with one sword, he managed to knock the ratman off-balance for a moment which gave him an opening he gladly took. Lashing out with a straight kick that slammed into the throwing knife still embedded in the Engineer's shoulder.

 **Critical Hit! Teeksqueak's right arm is crippled!**

With a pained spasm and a shriek, the staff fell from Teeksqueak's nerveless fingers as the arm flopped down uselessly at his side. That was the good news. The bad news was that at the same moment, roughly speaking, Teeksqueak's arm started to whine.

"Die-die! **[Warpfire]!** " The Warlock Engineer shrieked in triumph.

"Are you _insane?!_ In this enclosed space you'll cook the both of us!" Issei shouted. But Teeksqueak just cackled and ignored him, too far gone in pain and fury to either listen or care.

This was going to _suck_.

 _With the Gremory Group, Sona and Saji_

The sound of guns firing put the devils on high-alert. While firearms were something that could be neutralised beforehand via a clever little spell that turned the chemical propellant into sludge, or even blocked with magic circle shields or body reinforcement, given enough forewarning, they could and had still killed unprepared devils before. Their bodies may be stronger and more resilient than humans, strong enough to even withstand small calibre rounds with nothing more than bruises and occasionally cracked bones, but rifles and heavier weapons were still a very real threat.

"Move!" Rias ordered and the group started running. Not two minutes later, they came across another window looking down on a vast chamber just in time to see their quarry literally _dodge a bullet_ from a pistol-wielding rat-creature with crude cybernetic implants dotting around its body.

Saji gaped at that. "How the _hell?!_ "

"He noticed the rat creature drawing the firearm and dodged the moment he noticed that it was drawing a bead on him." Sona answered as she adjusted her glasses with one hand. "In the end, it was just as much luck and his foes foolishness as skill that he managed to dodge the shot completely. If that creature hadn't aimed for his head and instead gone for a body shot or even waited to aim more before firing, then our friend likely would not have fared so well. As it is, he was lucky enough to just lose a few hairs, metaphorically speaking."

"He has gotten better." Kiba noted mildly as the red-armoured figure below clashed with the gun-wielding ratmen, cutting four of the five down with wide, precise strikes. He winced as one of the swords shattered though. "He _really_ needs to get better weapons though." He winced again when the figure stabbed the jagged remains of the broken sword into one of their throats. "Though he's admittedly quite good at using even the broken remnants." he added a bit irritably.

Using a broken sword so brutally was not something the honourable young Knight enjoyed seeing.

"That doesn't look good." Akeno muttered as the cyborg ratman raised its left arm and green energy surrounded it. Then she was blinking and the purported human was, despite a hastily erected shield, sent flying back and slamming into one of the ratman-sized chairs around the table and the corpse it had on it.

"Gross." Saji wrinkled his nose.

"I'm surprised he can even _move_ after that kind of punishment." Rias mused. "I mean, it wasn't as strong as one of Akeno's Thunder Blast spells, but any _normal_ human should either be dead or comatose from that kind of hit."

"Ufufufu…" the infamous S&M enthusiast wriggled at that. She was always on the lookout for more durable playmates. That one time Rias had joined in had been _fabulous_ …who knew she could be such a good sub?

Rolling her eyes at her old friend's…predilections, Rias very carefully did not think of the one and only time Akeno had convinced her to be a bottom in one of her sessions. It had been… _stimulating_ , to say the least. Who knew that being a sub was so liberating?

Down below, the human had leapt to his feet and pulled a knife out of nowhere, throwing it into the shoulder of the ratman with some skill. Drawing yet another sword out of wherever the hell he kept them (just how _many_ of those damn throwaway swords did he _have_ , anyway?), he then charged at his enemy, who pulled a staff out of nowhere to defend itself.

Sona abruptly shook her head. They were so caught up in watching that they had completely forgotten to do something about it. Fucking bystander's syndrome.

"Rias, we have to get in there." She said crisply. "He might be good against purely physical threats, but magic tips the scales against him."

"Agreed." The redheaded devil shook her own head as if to clear it. "Unfortunately, our old friend the forcefield is back."

And indeed, the crackling green forcefield was in place outside of the windows.

"Just how many of those damned things are there?!" Sona growled in irritation.

"I think we can get out from over there." Kiba pointed at the door on the far side of the chamber, just behind where the ratman was standing. "The door there should lead in here, so we can probably get out that way."

"Let's move then." Rias said decisively, when a curious Saji pressed a button, turning the microphones of the room outside on and piping the content to the room they were standing in.

" _Die-die!_ **[Warpfire]!** "

" _Are you_ insane _?! In this enclosed space you'll cook the both of us!_ " the red-armoured figure shouted.

The only answer was cackling from the ratman as a ball of sickly green and black-tinged fire bloomed to life in front of his only working hand, the other having been disabled while the devils had been talking. Then, with a dull roar, the fireball of unnatural origin unleashed a searing gout of flames that sought to engulf the human who stood before it.

Apparently recognising that the flames were too fast for him to avoid, the armoured human crossed his swords in front of him as if to block a strike before creating a pair of shields, seemingly using his swords as focuses to layer one over the others. Just as the flames were about to reach the first shield, the shields shifted, merging with each other to form one large shield.

The detonation of the flames washing over the shield was both blinding and deafening, and those among the devils who hadn't looked away in time spent precious seconds blinking away spots from in front of their eyes and shaking their heads to get rid of the ringing sound they were inflicted with.

Blinking furiously, Rias looked down into the room below to see both the ratman and the armoured human knocked flat on the ground. Wisps of smoke came from both parties and Rias couldn't tell if the two of them had died or just been knocked out by the explosion of magic.

Then, abruptly, the ratman sat up with a snarl. It flailed around for a moment before leaping to its feet. Even as it did so, however, the armoured human coughed and groaned, rolling to his knees even as he discarded his two swords, which had shattered in the explosion.

" _What does it take to kill-kill you?!_ " the ratman snarled.

" _More than what you have, squeaky._ " The human responded dryly as he staggered to his feet. " _Now then…I believe it's_ your _turn to die._ "

Giving him a sneer, the ratman reared back and let loose a long, whining screech. On cue, a pair of doors slammed open and a swarm of ratmen poured out of each of them, all of them black-furred, all of them bearing steel armour.

" _Did you_ really _think it would be so easy-easy?_ " the ratman asked condescendingly.

" _Y'know, just for a second there?_ Yeah _,_ _I did._ " The armoured man sighed. " _Well now. I might actually die with this many enemies…like_ hell _I'm going to let that happen!_ "

A blue glow from his right arm drew everyone's attention. A blue gauntlet of light appeared in a dazzling flash.

 **[Game ON!]**

"The **[Gamer's Gear]**!" Sona gasped in realisation.

"You know this Sacred Gear, Sona?" Rias asked sharply.

The Sitri Heiress nodded. "It's just a step down in terms of power from the Thirteen Longinus, Rias; one of the few that can become comparable to them in power if allowed to fully mature. Games, the RPG variant anyway, were introduced by the two wielders of the **[Gaming Gears]** over eighty years ago. There are always two of them and the orange-coloured one is usually disruptive and chaotic. As this man wields the blue one, he should be safe to approach."

 **[Host's will to Live: Confirmed!]** The gear announced. **[Threat to Host's life: Confirmed! Host's determination to survive: Confirmed! Commencing evolution!]**

Slowly, the gauntlet of light changed shape, becoming less like the bracer of a knight's armour and more like an armoured glove. A white line extended from the centre of the wrist to the elbow joint.

 **[Gamer's Gear: Second Stage!]**

 _With Issei_

Issei stared wide-eyed at his newly evolved Sacred Gear. He didn't know what had caused it to evolve or why, but he really, really hoped that this was a Deus Ex Machina moment here! His health had been reduced to less than fifty and he wasn't going to get a chance to chug a potion in this situation.

Looking around, he saw the world going grey as it had when he had first awoken his two Sacred Gears. A World Pause.

 **[World Pause Activated!]**

 **Congratulations! You have successfully initiated the evolution of the [Gamer's Gear] to its second stage!**

 **While the [Initial Form] of the [Gamer's Gear] only allows you access to the basic systems of [The Gamer], the [Second Stage] form expands on this greatly.**

 **1) The Gamer's Store: Up until this point, you have only been able to sell items to the store. Now you can purchase items as well. The items in stock change every day, so buy while you can!**

 **2) Dungeon Locator: Once this dungeon comes to a close, you can use this function to locate other dungeons to delve.**

 **3) Spell Roulette: Once every 12 hours, you can roll the roulette, which will give you a random spell to cast. You will have to cast whichever spell is chosen and you cannot redo a roll. This spell will not cost you any MP.**

 **4) Crafting System: Defeating monsters, as opposed to humanoid opponents, will yield materials and blueprints with which you can use to build your own armour and weapons. You must have the perquisite skills to make anything and if your skills are not high enough, then the result will be a failure. For example, creating a sword of any description requires both the [Blacksmith] skill and the [Swordsmith] skill. [Blacksmith] has to be at Level 50 and [Swordsmith] must be at least level 20 to make even the crudest type of sword. Best of luck with your own weapons!**

 **In addition, your [Gamer's Gear] now has an armour value of 100 and adds +20 to all damage dealt using unarmed combat attacks.**

 **This concludes the [Gamer's Gear: Second Stage] Tutorial and it is hoped that you live long enough to evolve it to its third stage.**

 **[Prepare for combat, World Pause deactivating…]**

Shaking his head as his mind struggled to comprehend the latest curve ball the supernatural world had thrown at him, he just knew one thing: he had to use the new ability that his Sacred Gear had given him. In the best case scenario, it would be an attack spell that would kill most, if not all, of the Stormvermin around him. Worst case scenario, it would be something like the Self-destruct attack from Pokémon.

He tried not to let himself dwell on the later possibility.

" **[Spell Roulette]!** " he shouted, punching the **[Gamer's Gear]** into the air just as the last of the greyness faded.

 **[Roll!]**

Above him, a single 'reel' from a slot machine appeared and started to spin. It then slowly ground to a halt…on white flames?

 **[Magic Selected: Jōka Enran (Purifying Flamestorm)!]**

OK, that certainly sounded cool. Issei wondered how he was supposed to use it. Suddenly, his body started running through handsigns like a goddamn ninja out of Naruto!

"Man-thing! Die-die!" Teeksqueak screamed, sensing the magical power building up. "Kill-kill him!"

Almost as one, the small army of Stormvermin charged forwards, attempting to overwhelm Issei before he could cast his spell. But it was too late. With a clap of his hands the spell was completed. When that happened, Issei also knew what the spell did.

" **[Jōka Enran]!** " the Sekiryūtei shouted. All around him, a curtain of blazing white flames appeared, the purity of the flames making the ratmen, created by the corrupted and twisted power of Warpstone, flinch back in instinctive revulsion.

With a roar that made the sound created by the **[Warpfire]** spell sound like bubble wrap, the **[Jōka Enran]** exploded out from around Issei, hungrily consuming all things in the room that were tainted by evil and corruption…meaning anything to do with Warpstone was instantly devoured by the fire.

Including the ratmen.

In ten seconds, all of the Stormvermin were devoured by the flames and they winked out, leaving behind the crumpled remnants of their armour and weaponry…as well as Teeksqueak.

"Oh, for the love of…!" Issei groaned. "You're more persistent than a cockroach!"

The Warplock Engineer was not looking too healthy, despite still being standing upright. The fading remnants of several dome-shaped shields surrounded him, his fur was smoking, he was panting heavily and his cybernetic arm was flopped to one side uselessly. Despite having blocked most of the **[Jōka Enran]** , the effects from the purifying flames had at least somewhat bypassed his shields and weakened him, possibly even destroying the Warpstone inside of him that gave the ratman most of his power.

"Man….-thing!" Teeksqueak hissed in fury. "I…will not die…-die here!"

"You _really_ don't have a choice in the matter." The Sacred Gear user pointed out wearily. This had been one exhausting day, and he _still_ had to find the damned Ratman Breeder.

Pulling the very last of his ninjatō out of his inventory, Issei stepped forwards to advance on Teeksqueak. Then, a voice rang out.

"Hold it right there, both of you!"

Turning his head, Issei saw the origin of the voice, one Rias Gremory, along with all of the ORC except Koneko, with Sona Sitri and, of all people, _Saji Genshirō_ tagging along.

Issei facepalmed. "It's just _one_ thing after _another_ today."

 _With Rias_

One of the Gremory Heiress' eyebrows twitched at the instant facepalm and muttered exclamation, but she supposed that after fighting through this place, getting almost barbecued by a ratman and then having several devils show up as he was about to deal the coup de grâce on his enemy, he was entitled to be frustrated.

"Heiress Gremory. Heiress Sitri. What have I done to be graced with the attention of two blood-relatives of two separate members of the Four Maō?" the red-armoured figure asked.

"You know of me?" Sona asked with one elegantly raised eyebrow.

"The Devil voted 'most likely to be seduced by her older sister' by most people aware of the supernatural that I asked? Yes." The Sacred Gear user nodded.

The usually unflappable Student Council President exploded into a massive embarrassed blush. She spluttered for a moment before darting her eyes to Rias, _begging_ her to do something. Her older sister (and the various things aforementioned older sister said and did to her) was one of the very, _very_ few true weaknesses that Sona had.

"That aside, I would like to know exactly what has been going on in my territory and exactly how you are connected with it." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess stated. "There has been enough dodging and prevarication here. I _will_ have that knowledge before today ends."

"I suppose you deserve those answers, but I have a pest problem to take care of first." The red-armoured figure said evenly. "Tomorrow. I'll tell you everything, or at least as much as I can, tomorrow. Excuse me now."

He looked at Rias for a moment until she was forced to nod. It was reasonable to set a time and place. "The old school building at Kuō Academy?"

"Somewhere neutral where the likelihood of me being forced to visit the Underworld is less likely." The Sacred Gear User corrected her. He then quickly drew and threw a knife in one smooth motion, the blade sinking into Teeksqueak's eye even as the ratman struggled to lift a pistol. The sudden move startled the devils even as a shining light played over the human.

"Level up, about damn time." He nodded and then pressed something in front of him. A pulse of magic, unseen to ordinary human eyes, but clearly visible to the eyes of a devil, shot out from him. Any weapon or piece of armour from the ratmen that it touched, it vanished. It simply washed over the devils without as much as an incident.

"The **[Gamer's Gear]** is said to turn the user into a walking video game character." Sona said, now recovered from her earlier embarrassment. "Judging by how you referred to levels earlier, can I assume that's true?"

"It is." The red-armoured man nodded. "I gain Experience Points from defeating or killing enemies and once they reach a certain number, I move to the next level, gaining Attribute Points to improve my basic Attributes. It's…been a very _interesting_ ride, to say the least."

"That can't be all there is to it." Rias frowned.

"Of course not. **[Observe: Rias Gremory]**." The man said and a blue screen appeared in front of him. He tapped one side of it and it rotated around so she could see it. It had mostly question marks, but the level, title, special status, perks and flaws sections piqued her interest.

Sona was fascinated. "And you can do this to _anyone_?"

"Yes, but my skill in it is too low to get any hard and fast numbers on your actual stats." The man admitted. "Devils, especially Pureblooded High-Class Devils, seem to require a skill level higher than twenty to get details other than the bare bones."

"Even with that as a limitation, you seem to have an insight into how we work with this." Sona said with a thoughtful expression that turned sharp. "Have you used it on me?"

"Yes, and that's where I found out that I could be intimidated by a person's intelligence." The Sacred Gear user chuckled. "Have a look yourself. **[Observe: Sona Sitri]**."

Another screen popped up and he turned it so that the Sitri Heiress could read it, which she did eagerly. What she saw made her re-evaluate the threat level of his Sacred Gear. If it could even tell him common weaknesses of the species he was facing, then he would be unimaginably dangerous to those who were unaware of him. Even more so if it told him the strengths and weaknesses of the specific enemies he had in front of him.

She blushed crimson at the two weaknesses unique to her in the 'Flaws' section. Sona once again cursed the genetics that made the Sitri family females tend towards the lithe and svelte physique rather than the busty type, as well as the never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed sister complex that her sister (that she _did_ actually love) had for her.

"So this is how you discovered the information about Onee-sama." She said shrewdly.

"Yes. I apologise for that, but dealing with Rias Gremory is easier than dealing with you; she lacks your insane levels of intelligence." The figure shrugged before reaching into mid-air. "Not that she's any less intimidating, but dealing with a highly intelligent person is better than dealing with a verified genius."

"The lesser of two evils, is it?" Rias raised an eyebrow.

"From my perspective, yes. Now, where is that…ah, here it is." He pulled out a sheet of paper from mid-air and handed it to Rias. "This is the dying message of the head of Project Rat King, the Purifier project that created the ratmen. It should give you at least an abridged history of the ratmen and some of the motivations behind the Purifiers. Consider it a down payment for tomorrow. Speaking of, where should we meet?"

"There's a small shrine in the forest hills of Kuō." Akeno spoke up quietly. "It is my…well, second home. It has no wards or other spells on it. Would that suffice?"

"Yes." The man nodded before turning and walking over to the large circular table. "Now then, there should be a switch here somewhere…aha!"

He pressed a carving on the surface of the table and the thirteen seats around it moved backwards until they struck the wall. Then the table sunk into the ground and rotated with various clicking mechanical sounds before first one, and then another part of it sank down into a circular set of steps. The air released from the opening was fetid and poisonous, even more so than what was already present in the underground room.

It also smelled even worse, somehow overpowering the filtration spells protecting the devils' sensitive senses of smell, making them all gag. The red-armoured man wheezed and shook his head furiously.

"Urgh…it smells like an abandoned abattoir down there!" he gasped out.

"What…what is down there!?" Rias asked before she quickly created a more powerful filtration spell for herself and her Peerage. Sona handled Saji.

"The Ratman Breeder, the mother of their race." The Sacred Gear User replied grimly. "Once she's dead, the ratmen will be doomed to extinction in a handful of decades, as she is the sole female ratman and cannot be cloned."

"Why would you kill her?" Kiba asked tensely. "It seems to be the male ratmen are the ones you should have issue with."

The draconic faceplate of the human regarded the Knight for a moment. "I called it the smell of an abattoir earlier, and that was _not_ me being semantic. Ratmen eat humans. I would even say that they are cannibalistic. You've seen the skeletons in the lairs. The Breeder devours human flesh and bone, among other things. You devils are in charge of hunting Stray Devils in Kuō, but _I_ am the one who has taken on the charge of protecting the humans from the ratmen. This has to be finished before the Breeder respawns another army of ratmen. My life, and the lives of every human and supernatural that lives here, depend on it."

After a tense moment, Kiba sighed and nodded. "I don't like the idea of killing something that's helpless…but I can see why you'd want this thing dead."

The snort from the human was unexpected. "Helpless? Hardly. I'm expecting a fight for my life down there. Not a single part of fighting these accursed rats has been anything approaching easy."

"Should we accompany you then?" Rias asked.

"I think not, for several reasons." The man shook his head urgently. "My **[Gamer's Gear]** makes the world as a videogame to me, which includes the strength of my enemies. The weakest of you…who isn't Saji Genshirō…is above Level Thirty, with both of you being close to or at Level Fifty. If my Sacred Gear treats this boss like Typhon from Titan's Quest, and always counts as being ten levels higher than me, then I'm fine. If it goes more along the lines of 'always ten levels higher than the highest level enemy' on the other hand…"

"…then our presence would be detrimental." Sona nodded sharply. "By the way, what level is Saji-kun?"

A glance. "Level five. Slightly below average for a human of his age. The usual level is around about seven or eight, especially for the sports clubs, and the karate and kendo teams."

"And what level are you?" the bespectacled devil adjusted her glasses primly.

"Level Twelve." He admitted. "But I have a solution to give me something of a boost in that department."

Reaching into mid-air again, he pulled out a round pink ball that Rias easily recognised from her forays into videogames.

"Rare Candy? Really?" she said sceptically.

"Yes. I am of the opinion that my Sacred Gear has someone or something inside of it and I am going to punch it in the face for this." The armoured figure sounded very much aggrieved by this, not that Rias could blame him. It was somewhat insulting to be treated like a Pokémon.

Turning around and removing his menpō, the man ate two Rare Candies and the sense of power coming from him grew. Rias didn't try to see who he was, despite her curiosity. To do so would cost her whatever small amount of trust that she now held with him, and she noticed Sona grabbing her newest servant by the ear to prevent him from peeking for the same reason.

Once the man replaced his menpō and turned around, he said, "Well then, I shall see you this time tomorrow. The doorway will shut behind me; at a guess, you and yours will have to make your way through the tunnels in reverse. Feel free to break the traps as you go…they almost killed me several times, so it would be nice to ensure they won't cause anyone any problems if they wander down here."

"We'll be sealing the entrance shut." Sona informed him. "At least until we can get some people to sterilise this place and then erase it."

"Hopefully not while I'm in here." The human stated dryly. "Well, I had best be going. See you tomorrow."

With a loud crack, his sword, which had been out the whole time, cracked right down the centre.

"Well _that's_ irritating." He sighed in irritation. "Ah well. Time to break out the good stuff."

With that, he drew out a very impressive gladius from mid-air. Kiba paid special attention to it.

"That is a blade forged by magic." The swordsman said appreciatively.

"Yes. This damned dungeon forced me to use all of my remaining disposable ninjatō, which is a pain." The red armoured figure grumbled. "I have this Bloodmetal Gladius, but I was hoping to not have to waste it on the ratmen."

"Bloodmetal?" Sona asked curiously.

"Metal forged with willingly gifted dragon blood." The Sacred Gear User explained. "All of my armour is made of Bloodmetal. Dragon blood grants even weak metal such as copper the strength of steel, and I can even use this blade as a channel for magic, similar to a wand."

"That is rather impressive." Rias praised. "Where did you get these items from?"

"Loot drops, one of my personal favourite benefits from my Sacred Gear." The man replied and started down the staircase. "See you tomorrow, ladies."

With that, he vanished from sight and, true to his words, the door slammed shut and reverted to being a table as soon as he reached a section of the stairway that wasn't a part of the door. Not that it could stop them if the devils wanted to follow him, but they had enough to be getting on with for the moment.

"Well, _that_ was interesting." Sona noted. The bespectacled girl released Saji's ear and watched as the two blue screens dissolved into motes of light. "He could pose some problem if we let him walk around without supervision."

"True, but he doesn't seem to desire confrontation with us, Sona." Rias replied with a smirk. "The wielder of the **[Gamer's Gear]** seems to respect us, even if that does stem from fear of what we could do to him. After all, each member of my Peerage is at least twice his current level and you and I are both over triple it. Once we have the knowledge of the Purifiers that he has, we can probably persuade him to stop rampaging through our territory. He seems to be a reasonable enough person."

"Despite the fact he refused to show us his face?" the Sitri Heiress asked archly.

"Given how he seemed to be at least peripherally aware of how some devils recruit their Peerages, I do not blame him, Sona." The redhead shook her head. "Come. We had better get this place locked down and summon Beelzebub-sama's men to investigate."

The Maō Beelzebub had asked to be informed when the next lair of the ratmen was discovered. He was very curious about the substance known as Warpstone, although Rias doubted any in this chamber had survived the purifying fire that had filled it earlier. The amount of Holy magic contained within them had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in fear.

' _Thankfully, that spell seemed to be generated at random, if the roulette above his head before the spell activated was any indication._ ' She thought with a small sigh as she led her servants, Sona, and Saji out of the room. Just about the only bad part of this situation was that they'd have to deal with those bedamned traps. Again.

How _fun_.

 _With Issei_

' _That_ _was terrifying!_ ' Issei thought as he leaned against the wall. ' _I_ _tried to act casual, but I dunno if they bought it or not!_ '

His heart was beating like fury. Sona and Rias were both powerful as hell, with Sona having reached Level Fifty and Rias not far behind her at Level Forty-Nine. He was so weak compared to them that he was surprised that they hadn't tried to forcibly take him with them or something. The pretty boy Kiba Yuuto hadn't looked happy with him, but considering he was the [Sole Survivor of the Holy Sword Project], whatever that meant, he guessed that he didn't like massacres. Understandable, but Issei didn't really have a choice when it came to this. It was either kill the ratmen or they'd kill him.

Shaking his head, Issei finally checked the messages that had been floating around him invisibly since Rias Gremory and the others had arrived.

 **You have slain X50 Stormvermin! You gain 15000 EXP!**

 **You have levelled up!**

 **You have levelled up!**

 **You have 10 Attribute Points to spend!**

 **You have slain [Teeksqueak, Chief Warplock Engineer]! You gain 2150 EXP!**

 **You have eaten a [Rare Candy]! You have levelled up!**

 **You have eaten a [Rare Candy]! You have levelled up!**

 **You have an additional 10 Attribute Points to spend!**

 **As the result of a specific action, the skill [Unified Shield] has been created!**

 **[Unified Shield] (Instant) (LV1, 0%EXP)**

 **Created by Hyōdō Issei in a blind panic, this skill…or spell, whichever you would like to call it…has the ability to merge magical shields together, combining their durability and defensive abilities, and granting the end construct increased defensive abilities based on however many shields were merged.**

 **\- Number of shields that can be merged: 2**

 **\- Bonus granted to Unified Shield Durability: +10**

 **\- Bonus Granted to Unified Shield Defensive ability: +10**

 **\- Costs 50 MP to activate.**

 **[Defensive Magic] has levelled up! LV3-LV4!**

 **[Lesser Barrier Shield] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Knife Throwing] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV8-LV9!**

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV9-LV10!**

 **[Force Absorption Field] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

 **[Lesser Draconic Charisma] has levelled up! LV5-LV6!**

 **As a result of repeated actions, the skill [Pain Resistance] has been created!**

 **[Pain Resistance] (Passive) [LV1, 0%EXP]**

 **When you can't avoid it, you just have to bear it. This skill will help you deal with pain, but it will still be there. This skill is basically pain tolerance. A higher pain threshold, so to speak. To completely ignore pain, you should acquire the skill [Pain Nullity].**

 **\- Reduces the amount of pain you feel by 1%.**

Wow. That was a lot of things to process. The twenty AP is nice, though it was depressing that he was probably going to spend them all on his INT and WIS, dammit. He opened his status screen.

 **Name: Hyōdō Issei**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 15| Next Level: 0% EXP**

 **Title: Oppai Baka**

 **HP: 50/750**

 **MP: 105/575**

 **STR: 125 [+]**

 **STA: 121 [+]**

 **DEX: 131 [+]**

 **INT: 34**

 **WIS: 24**

 **LUK: ?**

 **CHA: 75**

 **Attribute Points: 20**

Jeez, his physical stats were just insane! Adding ten points a level didn't sound like much when you first hear it, but the result just a handful of levels down the way was obvious.

Issei looked curiously at the small plus sign next to the three 100-plus stats and pressed the topmost one as a test.

 **[Reward for surpassing 100 in Strength: Skill: [Mighty Blow]!]**

 **[Reward for surpassing 100 in Stamina: Skill: [Indomitability]!]**

 **[Reward for surpassing 100 in Dexterity: Skill: [Speed Demon]!]**

Breaking it down simply, the Level One versions of these new skills did this: **[Mighty Blow]** gave a 1% chance to double the damage of any physical attack he made, while **[Indomitability]** gave a 1% chance to negate _50%_ of the damage of a physical attack he took. Finally, **[Speed Demon]** gave a 1% chance to double Issei's DEX for ten seconds.

The last one didn't make any sense to Issei, but he rolled with it. He then dropped ten points into WIS, and split the remaining ten into two groups of five and added them evenly to INT and WIS. It was clear that he was never going to have a good amount of either, at least compared to his physical attributes, but that wouldn't stop him from trying, damn it!

As for the loot he'd picked up…yeah, the stuff was barely worth fifty yen apiece. Only because he had fifty sets of each of them did they have value. Issei guessed that the damn fire had damaged them too badly to be worth anything more.

' _I_ _really wish I hadn't used the_ **[Spell Roulette]** _now. It might have come in handy against the Breeder._ ' He thought tiredly as he guzzled HP and MP potions. ' _Ah_ _well. No use crying over spilt milk. Now then…I'd better start actually moving._ '

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV10-LV11!**

 **[Lesser HP Regeneration] has levelled up! LV4-LV5!**

One eyebrow twitching spasmodically (just how damned poisonous _was_ this air?!), Issei closed the box and started to walk. The walls in this section of the lair looked like the kind you'd see in an old-fashioned goldmine in those old Westerns.

' _Just_ _how much is the_ **[Gamer's Gear]** _interfering with this place?_ ' Issei wondered as he examined the still-materialised form of his right-side Sacred Gear. It was rather like someone had somehow turned a box of sapphires into liquid, dipped his arm in it and then left it to harden. Quite fetching, in his own opinion.

Issei was pretty sure he'd be using the **[Boosted Gear]** in this fight though. If the Breeder was as big as Boneripper had been, it was almost certain as Issei was kinda of the opinion that for all of Boneripper's raw physical power. The main reason that he hadn't needed the **[Boosted Gear]** against it was that Boneripper had been less of a Flesh Golem than a Meat Puppet. Teeksqueak's subordinates had been controlling the thing from a distance and he was pretty certain that the Breeder wouldn't have a Big Vulnerable Point like Boneripper had been cursed with, rather like the Cores in Angels from _Evangelion_.

The smell (which was so bad Issei decided to check to see if his sense of smell was intact once he left this foul place) was growing stronger. He had no earthly idea what it smelled of, but it was foul beyond belief. He was getting closer to the chamber where the Breeder lived then.

He gave the gladius in his hand a test swing and it felt good. Much better than the scrap metal rubbish he'd been using recently. This would be a good test of it.

At last he came to an open doorway. It was twice the height of a fully grown human man and was not wide enough to fit a modestly large car through. A security measure to prevent the Breeder from escaping, perhaps?

Peering through the doorway made Issei want to hurl. There were half-eaten corpses of both humans and ratmen strewn about the floor of the large chamber beyond the door. Some of them looked as if they had been there for a while as they were rotting.

 **[Gamer's Mind] Activated!**

Whew! He had almost started to panic there. Now that he was being forced to be calm by his Sacred Gear, he could possibly start to actually evaluate his enemy. The only problem was, he couldn't see an enemy, just the building-sized lump of flesh on the other side of the room…wait, what?!

Issei wasn't a big hack'n'slash gamer, but he _had_ played _God of War 2_. What he saw sitting on the other side of the room was very similar to the last of the Sisters of Fate, Clotho, from that game; a large mass of flesh with a rat-like head and multiple arms sprouting haphazardly from it. At the bottom was a fleshy sack that was currently expelling young ratmen the size of puppies. Yes, he _definitely_ had to do something about this situation. Thing was, his ability to kill from a distance was currently very minor. Then he remembered the shop that he purportedly had access to.

" **[Gamer's Store]!** " he whispered and a new window appeared in front of him.

 **[Welcome!]**

 **This is the Gamer's Store, where almost anything that is not Unique or Legendary can be bought, for the right price.**

 **To begin, please state what you are looking to buy.**

"Fire magic skill books." Issei whispered. He didn't know if the monstrosity, which was at least as tall as the front of Kuō Academy, could hear him, but he wasn't taking any chances. Just to be safe, he shuffled a few paces away from the door.

When the next screen popped up, Issei's eyes crossed at what he could see. There were deity-level spells capable of destroying a town in one shot intermixed with basic fire cantrips. Ok, he should have been more specific in what level of skill books he wanted. Quickly, he specified a tier 1 offensive skill book.

"This is more like it." He muttered, glad to not have to see **[Wrath of Vulcan]** or **[Blaze Meteor]** present. Scrolling through the list, Issei spotted several skill books that would be useful, but decided to purchase two of them in the end. A precision attack and a wise-area attack. The first was **[Flame Spear]** , which was rather self-explanatory, while the second was **[Burning Bomb]** , a fireball that exploded on impact. Together, the two spells cost him ¥10,000, but it would be worth it.

 **[Thank you for your custom!]**

 **Your purchases have been placed in your inventory!**

 **As you have spent 10,000 yen or more during your first purchase from the [Gamer's Store], you are hereby awarded a random item of the same type as you purchased completely free of charge!**

 **You receive [Fireball] skill book!**

Blinking in surprise, Issei inspected his inventory and indeed, there was an extra skill book in there. As absorbing three skill books a day was his limit, he was hesitant to learn them all, but then again, he hadn't learned any in the last few days, so he might as well. And, unlike the **[Golem Magic]** skill book, these three would be immediately useful, albeit weak.

And so…

 **[Fireball] [Tier 0] (Instant) [LV1, 0%EXP]**

 **The most basic of basic offensive attack spells in all of fire magic. Even hedgewitches know this spell as a basic self-defence measure. The user creates a ball of flames in their hand and hurls it at the enemy. With practice, the size and power of this spell can increase, but be realistic; it's not going to kill a god. Or even an angel.**

 **\- Size: Mandarin Orange**

 **\- Range: 3 Meters**

 **\- Damage: WIS**

 **\- Cost: 30 MP/Fireball**

 **[Flame Spear] [Tier 1] (Instant) [LV1, 0%EXP]**

 **A modestly useful fire spell. The user forms fire into a pointed length and launches it at the enemy. With a surprisingly good range for a Tier 1 spell, it is used by journeymen spellcasters frequently. With practice, this spell can even attain a piercing effect.**

 **\- Size: One Foot**

 **\- Range: 10 Meters**

 **\- Damage: WIS + INT ÷ 2**

 **\- Cost: 60 MP/Spear**

 **[Burning Bomb] [Tier 1] (Instant) [LV1, 0%EXP]**

 **One of the many improved versions of the basic [Fireball] spell, this is one of the most powerful Tier 1 fire spells commonly known. Cast in a similar fashion to its predecessor, the humble [Fireball], the [Burning Bomb] essentially acts as a fire-type magical grenade, exploding upon impact. With enough effort put into improving it, this spell can rain chaos among groups of lightly armoured enemies.**

 **\- Size: Mandarin Orange.**

 **\- Range: 5 Meters.**

 **\- AOE: 3 Feet.**

 **\- Damage: - Fully Within AOE: WIS + INT**

 **\- Partially within AOE: WIS**

 **\- Cost: 75MP/Bomb**

The fire spells were far more destructive than the earth spells he had acquired before now, which made sense. Fire was, historically speaking, more flashily destructive than earth. If you didn't count earthquakes, landslides and other natural disasters of course.

The result of learning those three spells was quite surprising.

 **As a result of learning three low-tier fire magic spells, the skill [Lesser Fire Magic] has been created!**

 **[Lesser Fire Magic] (Passive/Active) [LV1, 0%EXP]**

 **The ability to use magic to create and control fire. Since ancient times, fire, known to some as the element of power, has been a symbol of destruction and the magic that it is used for usually follows that line of thought. There are, however, benign and beneficial uses for fire, such as Pyromancy. Some beings of fire, such as phoenixes, are regarded as symbols of rebirth and of good. Lesser Fire Magic is the lowest branch of all fire magic, but is one of the best to start off learning for a lone wizard.**

 **\- Access to Tier 0 and Tier 1 spells.**

Huh. Looks like learning three spells in a particular field gives you access to the whole thing if they're at the same level. Useful to know.

Taking in a deep breath and letting it out, Issei pulled his hood over his body for the first time in this dungeon, fading from active sight. Exercising caution was the basics of the basics when you have the chance to actually sneak up on a boss monster, after all.

Entering the room, Issei could see that the size of the monster want exaggerated by the distance. Rather, his estimation as spot on. The damned Breeder was _massive_. How the hell was he going to kill the blasted thing?

 **Ratman Breeder – LV18**

 **[Ratman Primogenitor]**

Even with his luck at finding the Rare Candies, the damn boss was _still_ a few levels higher than he was. Oh well. He'd never heard of someone out-levelling a boss in a game, so that must translate over to the **[Gamer's Gear]** too.

Just as he crossed the rough halfway point, an alarm blared and circular armoured panels rotated out of the wall to slam shut around the Breeder. A motion sensor? Pressure plate? Whichever it was, or even if it was a more esoteric method, he had been discovered and his problems had increased.

Why, might you ask? Because a group of Stormvermin charged out of a hidden door, halberds ready. Oh. _Joy_. Not only did they charge out, they also charged right at where Issei was standing, meaning that they knew exactly where he was, somehow.

 **Elite Stormvermin – Breeder Guard – LV15**

 **[Great Rat]**

Perfect. So, not only was his enemy the size and weight (if not heavier) of an eighteen wheeler, _not_ _only_ did he have no idea what he had to do to kill it, but he had to deal with elite man-eating rats in order to get to aforementioned oversized rat-woman-abomination.

He was _so_ going to kick the ass of whatever idiot had proposed Project Rat King in the Purifiers. It would be _righteous_. It would be _satisfying_. And, above all else, it would involve a lot of screaming in pain on the part of the idiot!

Deciding that stealth was pointless as they could see through him easily, Issei flipped his hood down with his free hand before pointing his Bloodmetal Gladius at the approaching horde of ratmen.

" **[Flame Spear]!** " he ordered and flames licked across the surface of the blade before leaping from the sword and coalescing as a foot-long spear and launching itself at his targets. It slammed straight into the lead ratman's head, killing it in a gout of flames that covered its body. Oh? Apparently they used grease to make their fur all shiny like that.

 **Information discovered! [Elite Stormvermin – Breeder Guard] are vulnerable to fire! You gain 50 EXP for discovering this!**

What _useful_ information!

"And for my next trick… **[Burning Bomb]!** " Issei grinned savagely as he raised his free hand into the air. A spark appeared and then grew into a ball about the size of a Mandarin orange, just as advertised. It floated a couple of inches above his hand, but he could _feel_ the restrained heat of the explosive spell just waiting to be released.

"Eat this!" he shouted and lobbed the magic grenade spell at the approaching group of rats. The one he aimed at moved itself aside to avoid it, but was unprepared when the **[Burning Bomb]** exploded, covering it and four other Elites in a strong burst of fire, outright killing the one standing right above it when it exploded.

Of the group, which had been ten strong when it charged in, two members had already fallen and four of the others were performing the frantic dance that the terminally-on-fire do. That left the remaining four scattered, disorganised and -relatively- easy prey.

Launching himself forward, Issei took the closest Elite Stormvermin off-guard and disarmed it before plunging his Gladius into its exposed throat, killing it.

 **Critical Hit!**

By this time, the three other Elites who weren't being turned into charred ratman briquettes had recovered and surrounded the human while he had been dealing with the first of their number. They charged in almost perfect unison, their halberds drawn back to strike Issei down, when the human raised one armoured hand and shouted, " **[Fireball]!** "

The orb of red fire appeared and was lobbed at the two who were closest together, forcing them to jump away lest they also catch fire. This left only one halberd for him to deal with. He successfully **[Parried]** it and threw the ratman off balance, cutting off the dominant arm of the beast, along with the weapon it held.

As the (literally) disarmed Elite Stormvermin screeched in pain and clutched the stump of its severed limb, Issei changed directions and circled around the other two, forcing them to react to him. Snarling, the ratmen tried a pincer attack on him, something which seemed to be something of a standard attack manoeuvre for Stormvermin, as at least one pair had tried it against him every time he had encountered them.

Dodging one halberd and knocking the other aside, Issei lashed out with a strong blow with his **[Gamer's Gear]** -clad fist, hearing the distinctive crunch of bones from his chosen target's face collapsing in on itself from his strike. He delivered a mercy blow on the beast before moving to confront the other Elite.

"Die-die!" it barked, swiping at him furiously with its weapon. It was somewhat skilled with the thing, Issei was forced to admit as he evaded the strikes with some difficulty. Not enough to overcome his **[Evasion]** skill, but well enough to force him to use **[Evasion]** , at any rate. He let loose a flurry of stabs that set the Elite Stormvermin desperately on the defensive, his weapon's half getting hit by the point of the blade, but not breaking. The tip drew blood from the ratman more often than not, however.

Issei was staggered when something hit him from behind, dropping his HP by 60 points. A quick glance showed that it was the now-one-armed Stormvermin, clumsily wielding its weapon in its only remaining hand.

" **[Fireball]!** " Issei snapped out as he pointed his free hand at the one-armed ratman, sending the fireball crashing right into its chest. The scream of pain almost immediately afterwards was not pleasant, so Issei focussed all of his attention on killing the last one. He was surprised that the ratman hadn't figured out the whole 'stop, drop and roll' thing, but then cunning and deviousness didn't equal cleverness or intelligence.

Or even common sense, really.

Issei dispatched the last standing ratman before dealing mercy strikes to the four still burning ones. Burning to death wasn't pleasant and Issei was merciful that way.

 **You have slain [Elite Stormvermin – Breeder Guard] X10! You Earn 3500 EXP!**

Issei looted the corpses and sighed in frustrated exasperation. _Still_ no decent loot! What the hell was up with this dungeon!?

Dismissing that worry, he examined the area around him and spotted a giant nozzle above the Breeder. It reminded him of something…oh.

" _Half-Life_? Seriously?" Issei grumbled. Did these damn Purifiers leave _anything_ alone? It made sense to have a way to kill the Breeder in a pinch, but to steal the method from one of the best shoot-em-ups in the world was just low.

' _OK Issei…just roll with it._ ' He thought with another sigh. 'Right _. So, if this is based on that awesome bit in_ Half-Life _that I'm thinking about, there should be a control station somewhere…aha! There you are._ '

Above the door he had entered the chamber by was a control booth, with a single way into it via a walkway. The only way to the control box was a walkway leading into a wall on the far side of the chamber, where there was a half-open door. It positively screamed 'possible trap' to Issei, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. And he couldn't risk attacking the armoured cover of the Breeder; not only would it doubtless do absolutely nothing, but it might also summon more of those damned Stormvermin.

Slipping through the door, Issei was presented with the scene of a massacre. Men and women wearing the uniform of the Purifiers lay strewn across the floor, dead. The wounds and blood splashes, a detached part of Issei's mind observed, meant that they had been taken completely by surprise, standing around and chatting, most likely. Gutter Runners.

 **[Gamer's Mind], activated!**

The surging anger and panic subsided thanks to his Sacred Gear. Issei took in a deep breath and exhaled. Right. Cool, calm and collected. Kill the abomination against nature now, grieve for those people later.

Resolve set, Issei stepped forwards, only to be confronted with a screen popping up in front of him.

 **Do you wish to loot the area?**

 **Y|N**

This made Issei hesitate. Looting the ratmen was one thing, but looting these poor people was quite another. It wasn't right. Then again, he would use their stuff to kill the ratmen, which they'd doubtlessly want, so there was that…

After some internal debate, Issei reluctantly looted the bodies. There was a high chance that at least one of them would have a clue about where the actual Purifier base was and he couldn't let a chance like that go. He'd inspect the contents later.

There was only one set of stairs in the place and it led up, so Issei went up them. More dead Purifiers were on the next floor, which he looted. By his rough count, the ratmen had killed roughly thirty Purifiers by this point, and who knows how many other humans. Those idiots had reaped what they had sown from trying to play god, but still. They hadn't deserved _this_.

It was the same on the third floor, except there was actually places to go on that floor. One door to the right looked out on the path to the control room, while the other was made of fine wood and had a brass plaque on it saying 'Midorikawa Nobuyuki, Head Researcher, Project Rat King' on it.

This was too much temptation for Issei to pass over. Not only would there likely be instructions to activating the giant Breeder Killing Device, but there may also be a map or something that could direct him to the Purifiers' local base.

Problem: The door was locked.

" **[Earth Shot]!** "

SMASH!

Problem solved.

The room that was the office of the deceased Midorikawa-san wasn't luxurious by any means. It was similar to the kind of office you'd see used by a highschool counsellor on TV. It had a desk, a chair behind it a less nice chair in front of it, a sofa and maps on the wall. All of them were of Kuō City. One was a perfect match for the one that Issei had in his inventory, marking the locations of the ratman burrows. Another was clearly a preliminary version of that, with several more locations that had seemingly been considered and then discarded for various reasons.

The map that Issei was most interested in was obviously the map that had a single location indicated on it, with the symbol of the Purifiers themselves. This was doubtlessly the location of the Purifiers' Kuō base. He took it down and stored it in his inventory, swiftly followed by the preliminary burrow map. He'd check out those locations at some point, in case they were dungeons.

That is, _after_ he dropped in on the Purifiers and made his opinion on their activities clear.

Next, he searched the desk. Although the drawers were locked, the keys were on a hook on the wall. Clearly, Midorikawa-san hadn't been very security conscious of his own office. The first drawer had several rolls of Yen notes in it, for some strange reason. Had he planned on paying his men in cash, by any chance?

 **You acquired ¥200,000!**

Cha-ching!

The second drawer had numerous folders in it, full of research notes on the ratmen. That would hopefully be useful to keep the devils off his back, so into the inventory with them.

Finally, the third drawer had two things in it; a slim folder and a removable console. Issei picked up the folder and skimmed through it. Basically, the console was the Emergency Base Destruction Console. The only way to kill the Breeder was to destroy the Base with it, as it was assumed by the Purifiers that if they needed to kill the Breeder, then the entire plan was defunct, necessitating the destruction of all evidence.

The steps to destroy the base were rather simple as long as he had the console, although he was worried about what might happen to Kuō City above if it worked. Then he read on and relaxed, as it seemed to be some sort of magic system to fill the place with concrete. It was, in his opinion, a bit…Okay, a LOT hypocritical of them to both hate and use magic, but that's human nature for you.

Stowing the console in his inventory, Issei headed to the door leading to the control booth, but froze when an enormous gob of something green slammed into the wall just outside of the door. Peeking out, he could only guess that it came from the Breeder. A poison spit attack? OK, now that was _rank_!

The Breeder screeched unintelligibly at him and spat another one at Issei, who decided that being in the same place as the spit (which was eating into the wall like acid!) was a Bad Idea, so he ran out onto the walkway and proceeded to dodge and evade every single spit attack that came his way. Once, he had to block one with a **[Lesser Barrier Shield]** and only barely managed it.

Screeching to a halt in the booth, he pulled the console out and slotted it into place in the workstation. Issei then looked around and flipped a switch, lowering some metal shutters over the window that should hold the acid-like poison of the Breeder at bay to get his job done.

Pulling the folder out, he followed the instructions on it precisely, inputting codes and flipping switches when directed. He sped up after he felt several spit attacks slam into the control booth in succession. Finally, he pressed a button and a small screen on the console blinked some words at him.

 **[Commencing eradication of Subject #683783756b (Ratman Breeder)]**

A pop up appeared that made Issei's eyebrows shoot up.

 **Achievement unlocked: Kill It With Fire! (Destroy something with overwhelming amounts of fire and napalm) Reward: +2 levels to all Fire Magic spells and skills you possess!**

 **[Lesser Fire Magic] has levelled up! LV1-LV3!**

 **[Fireball] has levelled up! LV1-LV3!**

 **[Flame Spear] has levelled up! LV1-LV3!**

 **[Burning Bomb] has levelled up! LV1-LV3!**

Useful.

A pained shriek from the Breeder was cut off by a loud klaxon. Curiously, Issei flipped the switch that retracted the metal shutters to see what was happening. The Breeder was writhing in its armoured prison as several small flamethrowers coated it in burning napalm from the top up. Then a voice spoke via the announcement system.

" _Warning! Warning! The Ratman Breeder is about to be destroyed! All personnel please evacuate the base in a calm and orderly fashion. For the Purity and sanctity of our souls!_ "

With that, the large rocket engine (how had the Purifiers gotten their hands on that?!) lit up and started to burn the Breeder away. Amazingly, Issei could still hear the thing screaming in agony even as it was engulfed in pure flames.

Hearing a whirring sound, he turned around to see that a hidden doorway had opened. Well, that made sense. With the heat out there, it wasn't like whoever used this could just waltz out of here unharmed. Stepping through the doorway cautiously, Issei was thankful that the closed door cut off the death cries of the Breeder.

As he walked down the passage, he got a notification.

 **You have successfully slain the [Ratman Breeder]! You earn 5000 EXP!**

 **As the Breeder was killed with an enormous amount of heat and fire, it is impossible to loot this corpse.**

Stands to reason…it sucked, but it made sense.

At the end of the tunnel was…a room very much like the ones at the end of the other burrows. A single desk, a single chair and a single piece of paper on said desk. Walking over, Issei read it.

" _To Agent Flamberge_

 _Project Rat King has raised the concerns of Central Command and we have created a project specifically to neutralise the products of Project Rat King in the event of an uprising. The Counter-Project has been named, appropriately enough, Project Rat Poison. Your orders are to monitor the situation at Burrow #1 and, should it seem like the ratmen are rebelling, you are to commence tying up loose ends. After which, you are directed to go to Project Rat Poison's central location and initiate the plan. If at all possible, you are to recover any and all valuable documents regarding the project before leaving._

 _For the Purity and Sanctity of our Souls._ "

Issei felt numb. Could…could it be…that those Purifiers earlier _hadn't_ been killed by Gutter Runners? Had this… _Agent Flamberge_ …killed them instead? Picking up the paper, Issei flipped it around to see another map, this time with a symbol of a rat's head on a spike marking the location. That must be where Project Rat Poison was located, and presumably where this Flamberge guy had legged it to after possibly murdering his/her colleagues.

"I don't much like you, Flamberge." Issei muttered darkly as he stuffed the memo into his inventory. "And I'm gonna find you and ask you _exactly_ what you did here. Mark my words!"

Storming out of the other door, Issei came upon a set of stairs walking up them, he found himself in an abandoned warehouse, as seemed to be the norm for the back exits to the burrows. A trumpet sounded off, startling him.

 **[Quest Complete!]**

 **Ratcatcher: You have successfully conquered each of the seven Dens of the Ratman and gathered information of the Purifiers in each one as you went! The mention of your name now brings fear to all ratmen!**

 **Quest Reward: +1000 EXP, +¥8000, +2 AP, [Bloodmetal Swordbreaker], Title: Ratcatcher.**

 **Bonus Reward: [Sword Talent] Skill book.**

 **[Basic Swordsmanship] has levelled up! LV5-LV6!**

 **[Poison Resistance] has levelled up! LV11-LV12!**

 **[Short Sword Mastery] has levelled up! LV5-LV6!**

 **[Bloodmetal Gladius] special ability activated! Skill generated: [Short Sword Defence Mastery]!**

 **[Short Sword Defence Mastery] (Passive) [LV1, 0%EXP]**

 **Offensively, short swords suffer when compared to longer swords. But defensively, they actually provide a verifiable advantage to their wielders.**

 **\- Gain +1 to all defensive sword techniques while wielding a short sword.**

Removing his armour and weapons, Issei grinned. "Well, that's something. Now home for dinner. Don't want to worry Kaa-san."

With that, Issei headed off, a part of him wondering absently if his **[Gamer's Mind]** was making him a little bipolar.

 _Elsewhere_

"The #1 Burrow has just been destroyed, ma'am." A deep male voice said in a dark room.

"Agent Flamberge?" a contralto feminine voice responded.

"Negative. We have lost contact with that Agent. MIA, presumed KIA."

"Humph. With those _abominations_ lording it up over there, we dare not rile them further as of yet." The woman snorted. "Still…some purely preventative and exploratory measures are justified. Place the Cleanser Squad on high alert and dispatch some Sparks. I want to find whoever or _what_ ever did this. _Before_ those monsters do."

"Yes ma'am. Should we contact the area commander in Kuō?" the man asked.

"That fool has let those lowly rats get so out of hand that someone else discovered them and dealt with them for him." the woman verbally sneered. "No. As of now, all personnel in Kuō are considered in the cold. We're cutting them loose. If they survive, we _may_ go and retrieve them. Maybe."

"As you wish, Chairwoman." The man responded and left.

"Filthy monsters…!" the Chairwoman of the Purifiers' Central Command snarled. "I'll kill you all!"

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 **Next Chapter: DiscourseXDevils**

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	10. DiscourseXDevils

**Author's Note: So, here we are at chapter 10. This was a fairly hard chapter to write, I will admit, but I think I managed to pull it off. In about two to three more chapters, the 'Canon' timeline will begin…although I do not promise that it will be anything like how canon actually was. Hehehehe.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Also, my writing schedule restarts on the 15** **th** **of August, as I'm taking a month off to get some serious writing done.**

 **Check my Profile for my writing schedule.** **Before** **you PM me or ask me in a review!**

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Read, review and check out my other stories.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own DXD.**

"Let's go!" - Regular Speech

' _Oppai!_ ' - Thoughts

 **[BOOST!]** \- Sacred Gear/Ddraig Speech

 **Chapter 10: DiscourseXDevils**

 _That Night_

 _Issei's Bedroom, Hyōdō Residence_

" _ **Gamer's Gear!**_ " he whispered.

 **[Game On!]**

In a flare of blue light, Issei's right arm became the sapphire-coloured limb that signified the appearance of his first Sacred Gear. He flexed and moved his arm, eyes absently taking in the dancing, reflective shine from his bedroom's light, deep in thought.

' _I_ _have to go to a set location tomorrow and talk to the Devils. A location they are both aware of and likely familiar with while I've never stepped foot there before._ ' The Sekiryūtei thought, forcing himself to remain calm. ' _If_ _I was watching this happen on an anime, I would be screaming 'It's a Trap!' at the screen at the top of my voice. Probably calling the protagonist an idiot with every other breath too. Still, I don't think Gremory-sempai or Sitri-kaichou would go against their word on a neutral meeting. It just wouldn't match their character…I think._ '

That was the crux of the matter. He only knew their public 'human' personas, rather than who they were as Devils. For all he knew, Rias Gremory's actual personality was totally different. Yet…a part of him thought that with her, what you saw was what you got. That the red-haired girl only kept the parts of her that belonged in the supernatural world hidden.

He didn't know where that thought came from, but he had a strange disinclination to mistrust it.

"...hmm?" he noticed a small square outline at the base of his forearm near the elbow. It had an odd shape on it…kinda like a tree-diagram. Being the impulsive sort, he touched it without really thinking about it.

A screen popped up in front of him, with that self-same tree diagram on it.

 **[Gamer's Gear Evolution Tree]**

 **The Gamer's Gear, unlike most other Sacred Gears, allows the user to choose how it changes and evolves. Using this Dendrogram, you can choose how to evolve the Gamer's Gear and gain special abilities, skills and equipment additions.**

 **In order to evolve the Gamer's Gear, Sacred Gear Points (SGP) are required. You receive 2 SGP when you Level Up, as well as bonus SGP as rewards for using either of your Sacred Gears in combat and for defeating boss monsters.**

 **You currently have 5 SGP stored up. Ordinarily, you would have more from defeating a boss three levels above you, but as you didn't actually fight it, you were penalised for that.**

Great. He was being penalised for something out of his control. Wasn't _that_ a familiar situation for him or what?

Moving past his self-derision, Issei examined the lowermost point of the branching options, which had a single option, costing a single SGP. He pressed it to find out more details.

 **[Revelation] (Cost: 1 SGP)**

 **Only the holders of the two Gamer's Gears can truly understand the unique shift that holding their Sacred Gears have on their world view, but with this skill you can allow those around you to catch a brief glimpse of the world through your eyes. When activated, this ability allows any designated ally within a certain range to see the names, titles and levels of those around them for a set period of time after activation. You can set instructions as to whether they are allowed to see from your own information, and if so, exactly how much of it. You can even set titles that you own but do not have equipped.**

Truthfully, it was a fairly useless skill in Issei's opinion. Just about the only thing that it _could_ do was help him to deceive the Devils as to who he was. By switching out his titles, levels and names, he could keep who he was a secret for a little longer. He was certain that it was only a matter of time before the two Heiresses discovered his real identity. Neither of them was stupid, and Sona Sitri _especially_ was no-one's fool. It would only take a certain amount of time and effort to match up when the 'Red Armoured Warrior' showed up and when 'Oppai Baka' Issei Hyōdō disappeared. And that was without the various types of magic and God-only-knows-what-else they had available to them.

Still, that wasn't a major issue, he'd never expected to be able to hide forever after he found out he was going to school with actual Devils. No, it was merely a stop-gap to buy him time to level up to the point that he was strong enough that he could hold his own if things ended in a confrontation with them.

The fact that there were likely Devils far stronger given their respective ages and descriptions was something Issei would have to work out later. For now he needed to focus on his current issue.

Confirming he was going to select the upgrade, he saw a red ring appear around it, indicating it had been purchased. There was a choice of three upgrades in the next level that cost two SGP each, and he could only select one of them, locking the other two out. One would make his Sacred Gear arm elastic like rubber, letting him attack from a distance with it. Another allowed him to enlarge it to the same size as his body, vastly increasing the damage he could deal in close combat.

It was the last, however, that caught Issei's attention. Rather than adding to his combat abilities, this upgrade allowed him to add 20% to the EXP gain for all of his skills and spells, as well as 10% to his regular EXP gain.

The first two were flashy attacks that he recognised from _One Piece_ and _Busou Renkin_ respectively. Monkey D. Luffy's Rubber-Rubber Fruit and the Arms Alchemy Little Gulliver.

Both were abilities that both looked awesome and would immediately add to the **[Gamer's Gear]'s** combat ability. Both could likely be groomed into a fighting style that relied solely on using the blue gauntlet as their weapon of choice.

However, it was the third choice that caught Issei's attention. While not as impressive looking or as immediately valuable, the short and long-term benefits it would provide would far outweigh the immediate benefits of either combat upgrade.

Added to that he'd already developed several abilities and skills to allow him to fight without his gauntlet active, and neither his developing swordplay nor his magic would mesh well with either of the first two abilities. Choosing either combat ability would merely be adding another weapon where he already had several decent ones, while the third option augmented all of his abilities, allowing him to grow faster in several ways.

 **You make a very sensible, logical and calculated decision! You earn +1 WIS and +1 SGP!**

A vein pulsed on Issei's forehead. That sounded far more like an insult than anything complimentary. "Cheeky bastard…!"

Selecting the upgrade, which was named **[Learned Wisdom]** , Issei inspected the next level.

Each of the four available abilities cost three SPG each and had to select two of them before this tier locked and he could move on. The first, **[Sapphire Armour]** , added additional armour to the **[Gamer's Gear]** , tripling it to 300. The second, **[Sapphire Blade]** , let him reshape the blue gauntlet, and the arm beneath it, into a sword that was not only nearly indestructible, having no durability score to worry about, and could be upgraded and enhanced via an independent screen. Lastly, **[Ruby Vision]** let him see the names of his enemy's attacks and spells, and **[Ruby Sight]** let him have some form of combat precognition.

Unlike the last three options, all four of these had about the same level of potential, and in similar ways. The least useful, at least for him anyway, was the **[Sapphire Armour]**. While it would give the **[Gamer's Gear]** an impressive shield/armour buff, he relied on moving out of the way of attacks rather than absorbing the hits with armour. Not useless by any means but not fitting with the character design he was building on, a DPS over a Tank. Not to mention he didn't usually fight with either of his Sacred Gears active, saving them for trump cards in case he was overwhelmed.

He was seriously considering its counterpart, the **[Sapphire Blade]**. He'd only developed the most basic of skills in hand-to-hand combat, instead having chosen to focus on developing his swordplay instead. Having an indestructible sword that couldn't be removed from his person without killing him up his sleeve (almost literally) in case he was somehow unable to access his **[Inventory]** or had simply had all his other option destroyed was a tempting offer. Plus, he could upgrade it as well, meaning he could likely develop it into a truly badass weapon.

 **[Ruby Sight]** and **[Ruby Vision]** were a bit of a toss-up, both looked like they could be very useful in similar ways. In terms of sheer combat practicality, a form of precognition was hard to beat, even if it was limited to…just ten seconds. However, the ability to tell just what type of attack or spell his enemies were launching could be very useful in predicting what they did and how to counter or avoid them.

In the end, the choice was made when he looked ahead. **[Sight]** had no upgrades linked to it in future tiers, leaving it at just what it was. **[Vision]** on the other had had at least four different boxes linked to it, showing a great deal of potential for growth.

The choice between a stagnant skill and one that could grow and evolve as he did was a fairly obvious one in Issei's books

Nodding, Issei decided to go with **[Ruby Vision]** first and save **[Sapphire Blade]** for after he gained some more SGP. It would hopefully not take long to do that so long as he started using his Sacred Gears in fights more frequently. He was already planning on putting them through their paces after he found 'Agent Flamberge'. That one had been responsible for the murder of over thirty of his own comrades, and Issei would be only too happy to show the bastard why he was upset with them.

That kind of senseless slaughter needed to be _answered_ for.

He didn't know if Flamberge was male or female, or even what they looked like, but he would be able to find them thanks to his **[Gamer's Gear]**. For anyone other than the Gamer, a title represented an important aspect of a person that influenced either how they thought of themselves, how other's perceived them, or both, such as Rias Gremory's **[Heiress of the House of Gremory]** Title. Someone who had one title that they considered important to them and a title considered important by others would sometimes have a dual title, showing both at the same time. Again, to use Rias Gremory as an example, she was both a **[Heiress of the House of Gremory]** , which was likely based on others' perspective, and the **[Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess]** , which linked to her own personal views. Unless Flamberge was able to hide their title somehow, there was no hiding from Issei's gaze.

Dismissing the screen and his Sacred Gear, Issei headed to bed. Today had been a long day and tomorrow wasn't likely to be any easier.

 _The Next Day_

 _ORC Clubroom_

"So Rias, what's the plan?" Akeno asked as she served her [King] a cup of tea.

Pausing to sip the tea and savour the taste, Akeno always did brew excellent tea, Rias answered, "There is no plan, Akeno. You know as well as I do how tenuous our relationship with this armoured man is. The man was positively skittish when we met earlier, despite his attempts at calm and bravado, and, if his own statements are true, has no knowledge of us outside the old legends. Which, I will remind you, fail to paint Devils in any type of fair light. If we try anything underhanded or dramatic in hopes of discovering his identity and he discovers them, there is a good chance he'll simply disappear and we lose a valuable prospect for no gain."

Taking another sip of her tea, Rias shook her head slowly. "No, our best bet is to take this slowly and let him get to know us for us and build trust over time. Then we make an offer as honest and reasonable while putting the benefits offered in as best a light as possible."

The Reincarnated Nephilim nodded. "Understood. This situation with the Purifiers is worrying though."

The redhead nodded as she placed her teacup on her desk before adopting her 'thinking pose,' or 'the Gendo Pose' as Akeno sometimes called it. Letting her watch Evangelion had been a mistake.

Both she and Sona had read the letter that the wielder of the **[Gamer's Gear]** had given them and it had been a mixture of darkly amusing, horrifying, and heart-achingly sad. The act of a Fallen had led a simple (though admittedly brilliant) human to join the Purifiers in a war against all things supernatural. This in turn lead to the creation of those ratmen, only for him to end up betrayed and murdered by his own creations, dying full of doubt, worries and regrets.

"The key point that worries me is that there might be more to these Purifiers than what is visible at first glance." Rias muttered, more to herself than Akeno. "It seems utterly ludicrous, on the face of it, for a group of ordinary humans, bereft of even any magical abilities of their own, to try and attack the supernatural races, but this letter is very compelling."

"If it's genuine." Akeno demurred, playing the Devil's Advocate (or Angel's Advocate, as the case may be).

"True." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess agreed wearily, though she personally doubted it was faked. This entire situation was far too contrived to be any sort of deception. The costs of setting it up would far outstrip any gains it could provide. "Where are the others? I was certain that they knew about our meeting with our human friend at your shrine?"

"Two of the Perverted Trio are being chased around by Murayama-san and the other Kendo Club girls. Kiba-kun's trying to stop them from being unmanned." Akeno covered her mouth to hide her amusement. It faded somewhat when she recalled that Hyōdō Issei hadn't been seen peeping with the other two, meaning that either he had gotten better at hiding or that he had stopped peeping with them.

Given that he had almost been killed by the madman who had invaded his home, it wasn't too hard for Akeno, who had been forced to watch her mother being killed in front of her by the fanatical members of the Himejima Clan, to see he may have had a change in his priorities after that. He had walked away with a physical reminder of his brush with death, a thin scar down one side of his cheek.

Those kinds of situations can change a person. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse

"Koneko-chan is just getting some snacks. She should be here soon." The [Queen] continued. "What about Sitri-sama?"

"Sona'll be here as soon as she finishes organising the Student Council." Rias answered easily. "The addition of Saji Genshirō to her Peerage has made it easier, as they're all Devils now. I don't think Sona will bring along more members than we have in case we spook our friend."

In fact, Rias suspected that Sona would only bring Saji along so as to make the situation similar to the last time they met. Her childhood friend was astute enough to know that panicking their erstwhile ally with new faces could end badly for them.

Eventually, all of her peerage, plus Sona and Saji, were gathered in the room. Sona brought everyone's attention to her with a slight cough.

"Our objective here is to find information out regarding the makers of the Ratmen, the Purifiers." She said, adjusting her glasses with one delicate hand. "Beelzebub-sama's men discovered that the burrow from yesterday had been magically filled in with concrete and several, as-of-yet, unidentified substances at some point after we left it, so he has no further leads. This has made him somewhat…irked. He has already requested that Rias and I pass along any information the red-armoured man provides us."

"Wouldn't it be simpler to have Beelzebub-sama meet this guy in person then?" Saji asked in confusion.

Looking at him flatly, the Sitri Heiress pinched the bridge of her nose as she replied, "Rias and I are only just over three times his level and it is very obvious that us going near the wielder of the **[Gamer's Gear]** makes him extremely nervous at the least. He may have a _heart attack_ if a Satan-class Devil goes near him, especially since all of the current Maō are said to be many times more powerful than the originals."

"S-sorry, Kaichou…" Saji replied nervously, blushing in embarrassment.

Minutes later, the group of Devils teleported to Akeno's shrine via a transport circle. It had taken some diplomacy from Sona's elder sister to get the Shinto pantheon to let a Devil live there without being damaged by the wards, but it had been managed in the end. Whenever Akeno had some time, she spent it here.

"Whoa…this is awesome." Saji muttered. The shrine was small, but obviously well kept. The trees surrounding it at the edges of the paving stones were both well-trimmed and looked natural, a hard feat to pull off. The shrine itself was spotless and well-maintained as well. Even the torii gate looked brand new.

Koneko stiffened and pointed at the gate. "Someone's there."

An echoing chuckle reverberated around the grounds and a dark form rose out of the shadow of the gate. Throwing back its hood to reveal the red, dragon-themed helm of the man from the previous day. In a flash of light and with a swipe of his hands, the black, shadowy cloak he wore changed to the basic brown cape he had worn the previous day.

"How do you keep managing to track me down?" the red armoured figure asked Koneko curiously. "Most of my gear that isn't armour is dedicated to either enhancing my physical abilities or concealing my identity and presence."

"Isn't hiding your chi." Koneko stated bluntly.

"Seeing as I didn't know that was a thing before now, it isn't of any surprise." The man offered bemusedly. "Oh well. Live and learn. Heiress Gremory, Heiress Sitri. Everyone. I trust you all had an uneventful day?"

"Yes. Yourself?" Rias asked politely.

"Somewhat. I was ambushed by ratmen on the way here." The man answered. Despite the monotone his voice was, the gathered Devils could hear the irritation in it. "Disposable assassins whose bodies melted into nothing once they were dead. More annoying than anything else."

"They're striking in broad daylight?" that was certainly unpleasant news for Rias to think about. "Where was the attack?"

"A small alley about halfway between here and Kuō Academy." He answered. "It surprised me, considering their Breeder is dead."

"Are you certain?" Sona asked.

"It was the size of a three story house and I used the Purifier's own cleansing system to destroy the base and everything with it, starting with the Breeder." The Gamer answered dryly. "I also got a notification and experience points for defeating it, so yes, I am _very_ sure that the Breeder is dead. I also know it could not be cloned, made to have bred another Breeder or duplicated in most regular ways. Unless another supernatural faction is working with them, I cannot see how they can afford to keep up the human wave tactics."

This made the Sitri Heiress raise an eyebrow, slightly impressed. It was not often that someone so completely shut down any possible argument from her like that.

"I am only aware of a small group of Fallen in Kuō aside from our Peerages." Rias said with a frown. "Aside from the migrant Yōkai, that is."

"There's also a captured dwarf in the hands of the Purifiers." The red-armoured man interjected. He pulled a fine steel sword from his inventory. "This sword was, according to the item description my Sacred Gear provides, forged by a captured dwarf smith. I took it from the corpse of the first 'boss' that I slew. If the Purifiers were the ones who gave this to Byral Warfang, then it is likely that they not only have the dwarf, but other supernaturals imprisoned."

Both [Kings] exchanged looks. Dwarves were mainly from the Norse Pantheon and Odin did _not_ take any of his subjects being captured or imprisoned lightly, even if he usually played the carefree, dirty old man (at least according to Serafall). Things had just gotten even more complicated.

"Thank you for that." Sona sighed as she massaged her forehead. It wasn't really his fault. He was just holding up his end of the bargain and providing whatever information he could about the situation.

"Now then…shall we get to the main point of this meeting?" Rias asked, crossing her arms. "What, exactly, do you know about these Purifiers?"

"Exactly as I've told you, the Purifiers are apparently a group of humans who hate anything and everything supernatural." The red-armoured man offered with a shrug. "It extends from supernatural races, such as Devils, to humans with magic or spiritual power, to even those who simply possess a Sacred Gear. The initial targets of their attacks are the Biblical Factions and they created the ratmen as expendable shock troops, designed for a combination of human wave tactics and mass ambushes. Kuō was chosen to be the testing grounds of the ratmen as both of you are here and the Fallen would be left to act as scapegoats and possibly spark a renewal of your great war to weaken your factions further. As of this moment, all of the Ratman Burrows that I know of have been put to the sword, but there are at least two other Purifier facilities in Kuō that I plan on visiting shortly. Oh yes, here."

Reaching into his inventory the Gamer pulled out several piles of paperwork and handed them to the Gremory Peerage.

"These are the files belonging to Project Rat King that I confiscated before destroying the base." He said with a nod. "They ought to be interesting reading for whoever is investigating the ratmen. I wouldn't advise reading them yourselves though, particularly if you are in any way squeamish. I barely skimmed through a few of the files and was nearly sick from it. What these mad bastards did…it was pretty gruesome reading."

Sona nodded and teleported the reports to her house. She'd take them with her when she went to see Beelzebub-sama tonight with Rias.

"Anything else?" she asked.

"There's at least one member of the Purifiers still active in the area, codenamed 'Agent Flamberge'." The Gamer growled. Apparently whoever 'Agent Flamberge' was, he or she had done something to earn this man's wrath. "They're responsible for the murder of over thirty of their fellow Purifiers. I have a memo that basically ordered them to 'tie up any loose ends' before going to a new location to enact Project Rat Poison in the event of a ratman rebellion. They never even suspected whoever did it."

Kiba in particular looked angry at that. "Disgusting!" the young knight practically spat.

"Agreed. I'm looking forward to explaining my displeasure to Flamberge in person at some point in the near future. Such things must be answered for." The red-armoured man stated, flexing one hand demonstratively. "I will, however, do all that I can to leave enough of him so you can extract as much information about the Purifiers as you can. What happens to them after that is not my problem."

That was understandable. No regular human was supposed to know about the supernatural. Those with magical, spiritual or mystical abilities, as well as those who possessed chi abilities and Sacred Gears, were usually the only exemptions to this rule. As the Purifiers had been preparing to attack the Devils, Sona and Rias in particular, handing a Purifier over to them, alive and able to spill any secrets they had, would be an excellent move on their possible ally's part. It would certainly endear him to Sirzechs and Serafall; those two would move the earth for those who helped their siblings.

"Do you have any idea why we were chosen as their first targets?" Rias asked, sounding a bit peeved. Understandable, really.

"According to what I've found, out of the Three Factions the Devils have both the most solid power base and have the most easily exploited weaknesses." The red-armoured man answered calmly. "From what I've been able to infer, the Fallen and regular Angels do not suffer from any weaknesses as exploitable as a devil's natural weakness to Light and Holy attributes. The Fallen are scattered and their leadership is disorganize at best and fractured amongst the various leaders at worst. Likewise the lack of any 'true' miracles in recent centuries and the weakening of the Church's power has also lead to the Angel's faction slowly losing power as well. Devils on the other hand have been steadily rebuilding their numbers and your 'contract' system has allowed you to gain back your strength much more quickly."

"So take down the strongest and the rest can be handled later, is it?" Sona shook her head disapprovingly. "How would they stop us from simply retreating to the Underworld for a few decades until the Purifiers are dead?"

"The fact that the Purifiers are hypocrites." The Gamer stated flatly. "I do not care how much technology they have, creating the ratmen required at least _some_ magical knowledge, not to mention the use of Warpstone as a catalyst. There is no way in hell that stuff is natural in any way, shape, or form. They have someone able to cast spells in their ranks, by persuasion or threats I do not know. They could be planning some way to trap you here or force you to reveal your 'inhuman features' or whatever. I know that your wings are manifestations of your magic, but I doubt those hate-filled idiots do."

"Devil magic and human magic are very different things." Rias pointed out with a frown. "Human magic relies on mathematical calculations, while the magic of a Devil relies of the caster's imagination. A single human magic caster would not be able to accomplish the first possibility, and as you just said, the second one is impossible."

"Are there any artefacts that could add to a caster's power?" the man asked curiously.

"Aside from a select few Sacred Gears, yours included, no." Sona shook her head. "The Infinite Dragon God, Ophis, is supposedly able to bestow 'snakes' upon people to increase their power, but Ophis has not been seen in ages. Several of the Thirteen Longinus could do something similar, such as the **[Boosted Gear]** , but they are rare and powerful Sacred Gears rarely distributed by the God of the Bible. Other magical and divine artefacts are either sealed, kept within hands reach of the deity or spellcaster that it belongs to, are known to be in the hands of some Faction or the other, or have been destroyed. It is impossible."

"Has the wielder of the **[Tartarus Gamer's Gear]** been spotted recently?" the Gaia Gamer's Gear wielder asked sharply.

"No. You are the first to emerge since the deaths of the previous wielders." Sona answered with a shake of her head. "Of course, you could simply be the first to appear due to the other one lying low. Unlikely, as, from what few records I could find of them, the owners of the Tartarus Gear tend to be far from subtle in their actions."

"I know little of the history of my Sacred Gear or the nemesis I inherited because of it." The armoured man admitted. "I suspect heavily that there is some manner of sentience inside of it, but no proof."

"The history of your Sacred Gear is almost as mysterious to us." The Sitri Heiress replied honestly. "Just about all we know is that The God of the Bible created them shortly before the suspension of hostilities between the Three Factions and the start of the uneasy unofficial ceasefire that had endured since then and a couple mentions of their previous wielders doing battle. The only ones who might have an idea are some of the higher-ranked Angels. They purportedly knew their master and creator's movements rather well."

"I see." The Gamer nodded. "Incidentally, why is it that you constantly use 'God of the Bible' rather than a shorter turn of phrase?"

"Because simply calling the God of the Bible by His bare name damages Devils. Even someone else saying it in close proximity affects us." Rias answered simply. "Not badly though. It's more like a sudden bad headache most of the time because actual believers in Christianity have become much rarer in the last few centuries."

"That sounds like a very big hoax." The human stated flatly, his disbelief obvious.

"Say it." Sona challenged him.

"God." The Gamer stated, and every Devil present flinched in pain. He looked at an invisible screen before him. "Huh…according to my Sacred Gear, I just caused every Devil within earshot ten points of Holy Damage via the System of…the God of the Bible. Because of the Devil Weakness to the Holy Element, that's twenty points of damage."

Saji looked kind of spacy for a moment before he recovered. Understandable, as he was the weakest Devil present by far.

"This is unbelievable. Why go through all the trouble of writing that into his system?" the Gamer shook his helmeted head in shock. "It seems like a lot of effort for an effect that seems…pettily spiteful."

"The original Lucifer rebelled against Him and created beings that are the exact opposite to true Angels in essence and purpose." Rias stated. "As Lucifer was one of His first living creations, that must have been…galling. No one knows the mind of the God of the Bible, not even His Angels, but we have to assume that he intends to get around to removing us from the world at some point. Until He wants to do so and restarts the war for that purpose, His System acts as a reminder to every Devil, Pureblood or Reincarnated, that He is watching and punishing us for the sin our existence reminds him of."

"Huh…sounds like a bad case of sour grapes to me." The red-armoured man shrugged before suddenly stiffening and drawing his red metal (Bloodmetal he had called it) gladius and another short sword, made from the same red metal, that had several large serrations running down one side of it.

Kiba quickly identified it as a Swordbreaker, a form of parrying blade designed to catch, block, and deflect attacking blades.

"Ratmen." The Gamer said tensely as chittering cackles started to resound from around them. "Prepare for combat."

Several shadows detached themselves from the trees, revealing hunched-over ratmen clad in black and grey outfits and carrying rusty-looking swords and daggers in their forepaws. Some had green-tinged blades that the experienced Gamer quietly informed them were Warp Blades, weapons with blades forged from that 'Warpstone' material and poisonous to the touch.

"Kehehehehe…it has been a while, Man-Thing." A soft voice said as a figure of pure darkness materialised out of the shadows in much the same way that the Gamer had.

"Snikch. So murdering the Council of Thirteen wasn't enough for you, I see." The red-armoured man said faux calmly, though whether it was fear or anger he was repressing Sona couldn't be sure. "You want to add me to your list of victims too?"

"What… _who_ …is this?" Rias asked calmly, eyeing the newcomer cautiously.

"Oh, _do_ tell her, Man-Thing." The ratman chuckled. "I like my future marks to know who will take their heads."

"This, Rias Gremory, is the ratman known as Snikch, the Deathmaster. He is the Master Assassin of the Ratman People and almost killed me a few days ago." The Gamer pointed the gladius at Snikch threateningly. "You've gotten stronger, rat. Did murdering your former masters give you a boost in power?"

Snikch chuckled again. "Ah, to finally be rid of those fools-fools that claimed to be the Council but were just puppets-puppets…it was a heady feeling, Man-Thing. I am indeed stronger. Soon, I shall come to ply my trade on these fools-fools, but for the moment I have far-far more important targets. As apologies, my underlings will entertain you."

To the ratmen, he barked, "Kill-slay them!"

As the ninja-eske ratmen advance, Snikch himself returned to the shadows and vanished.

"Gamer's Gear!" the armoured man shouted.

 **[Game On!]**

In a flash, the blue Sacred Gear appeared on his arm.

"Show the Devils the truth of this world!" the Gamer commanded, raising his right arm to point his sword at the sky.

"What are you-?!" Rias started.

 **[Revelation!]**

A wave of blue light erupted from the Sacred Gear and struck every Devil in the area. Minorly disorientated, Sona blinked her eyes before she focussed on one of the approaching ratmen and blinked again as she spotted words floating above its head.

 **Gutter Runner LV15**

 **[Throat Slitter]**

Quickly, she turned her head to look at the person who had caused all of this, only to be disappointed.

 **Red Armoured Man LV15**

 **[Ratcatcher]**

"What is this?!" she demanded.

"A look through my eyes. This is the world for me ever since the **[Gamer's Gear]** activated." The man answered ruefully.

Deciding to shelve the matter until later, Sona analysed the enemies. Most were 'Gutter Runners' at Level 15, with a couple at Level 16. A small number were a different class completely.

 **Assassin Initiate LV16**

 **[Gizzard Gasher]**

 **Assassin Neophyte LV17**

 **[Blood Spiller]**

The most powerful one was troubling.

 **Lesser Assassin LV20**

 **[Sneering One]**

"Advice on fighting these things?" Kiba asked calmly, his eyes sharply moving between the advancing rat-creatures.

"A normal human is physically stronger than they are, but they're a lot faster and more agile. The ratmen also have no compunctions about fighting fair." The Gamer said firmly. "The ninja types like to use their tails to use a third weapon to sneak attack you, most use a concealed poisoned spike near the tip as a weapon. Any ratman who isn't a Slave will also use teamwork, but they do not care about the deaths of their fellows. The leaders also remain at the rear unless forced. Any one of you aside from Saji there could handily kill all of these ratmen without breaking a sweat."

"Buchou, I'll test them." The [Knight] stated stepping forward, his offer less of a question than a statement.

"Go on." The redhead nodded.

With an act of his will, a steel sword erupted from the ground and was grabbed by the blond boy. The next second, he moved in a blur, slicing through several of the Gutter Runners as if they were cardboard cut-outs. The startled shrieks and gurgles of the dying ratmen were cut off as the Reincarnated Sacred Gear User delivered mercy strikes to them, impaling their hearts with swift, precise stabs and cuts to their hearts and throats respectively.

"Whoa. As expected of a Level thirty-plus Reincarnated Devil." The Red-Armoured Man said with a touch of admiration in his voice.

Several shuriken flew through the air at him even as he spoke, but he simply raised a sword and said, " **[Lesser Barrier Shield]**."

A red magic circle appeared in front of him that deflected all of the throwing stars without so much as a crack…not that it was much of a surprise. Ordinary steel could only do so much against magic.

"Kiba, fall back for now. Akeno, try your magic." Rias ordered.

"Ufufufufufufufu…let's see how much they can take." The Yamato Nadeshiko giggled. Then, with a flick of her fingers, yellow magic circles formed over her hand and arcs of golden energy surged outward. The electrical magic struck a pair of Assassin Initiates, frying them in barely a handful of seconds. "Ara, so frail? How disappointing."

"They're more vulnerable to fire magic than lightning." The Gamer mentioned lightly.

"That was Thunder magic." Sona corrected him as she sent a wave of water blades to slice several advancing Gutter Runners into pieces. "Lightning contains a fragment of Light element, so very few Devils can wield it safely."

Leaving aside the fact that Akeno _could_ in fact use Lightning, as she was the daughter of Baraqiel, the Fallen Angel of Lightning. The former Nephilim simply chose to use the lesser Thunder Magic and had never touched her heritage from her father for personal reasons.

"Huh." The man said noncommittedly.

Between Koneko smashing a pair into a tree after their blades shattered against her Rook-given defence, Rias blasting several into dust with her **[Power of Destruction]** and the Red Armoured Man beheading a couple with quick and precise cuts of his blade, it was clear that the ratmen were badly outmatched. When one pulled out a bottle, the armoured man shouted hurriedly.

"Kiba! Kill that ratman before he has a chance to drink! That's Witchbrew, a potion that turns the drinker into a berserker!"

The ratmen even had alchemical potions to use? Sona, who had some basic knowledge of alchemy, was now _very_ firmly of the opinion that someone in the supernatural world was guiding the ratmen, even if they weren't aware of it. No newly created race could come up with something like Witchbrew without outside help.

The problem was solved by Kiba bisecting the Assassin from crown to groin. As the two halves of the body fell apart in an explosion off gore, the Red Armoured man charged into the middle of the rest of the ratmen, lashing out with his twin blades and causing chaos among the panicking assassins.

As the Level 20 Assassin leader turned to flee, the Red Armoured Man pointed his swords at the retreating rat and shouted, " **[Flame Spear]!** "

A red burst of fire launched itself from both of his weapons and buried themselves in the back of the cowardly ratman, covering it in flames and ending its life. A blink later, and all of the bodies had melted away, leaving no trace that they ever existed.

"Tch, I need to get my hands around Snikch's scrawny neck." The Gamer almost growled in frustration. "That sadistic little bastard is far too dangerous to let him wander free."

"Koneko, did you sense that ratman whatsoever?" Rias asked her [Rook].

"No. Chi was blending in with surroundings. Couldn't read it." The petite girl answered shortly.

"Apparently his title of master assassin is not just for show. It figures he'd have some way of keeping himself concealed from most types of detection." The Gamer sighed, sounding far more exhausted than he looked. "Some sort of skill or training, or perhaps a magic item like my **[Cloak of Shadows]**? Whichever it is, it'll be a pain to be on guard from being backstabbed by Snikch until I find a way around it."

"Do the ratmen know who you really are?" Sona asked sharply.

"No, but I imagine they have a better than human sense of smell, so tracking me from one of the burrows to my base won't be too difficult for them." He answered. "Oh, congratulations on becoming Level Seven, Saji-san."

The Sitri Heiress looked around, and indeed, Saji was now Level Seven. "How…?"

"He was in your 'party' when you killed four or five ratmen with a lazy flick of your fingers; obviously he got some of the experience points from your kills." The man replied. "Once he's Level Eight, he won't have to worry about the sunlight weakening him, as the Devil's weakness to light is just uncomfortable from that level up."

"Useful to know." Kiba commented. "Can I ask where you got that second blade you were using?"

"It was a Quest Reward for conquering the seven Ratmen Burrows, in addition to EXP, cash and my **[Ratcatcher]** title." The Gamer answered as he stowed his blades away in his inventory. "As long as I have it active, I cause fear in all ratmen. Those who don't feel fear or can control themselves are immune to it, like Snikch and his pet assassins seem to be."

"And that magic…that wasn't human magic or devil magic, at least not as I've experienced them." Sona adjusted her glasses with a slender finger.

"You mean my **[Flame Spear]**? It's a simple Tier 1 Lesser Fire Magic spell." The man sounded confused.

"Lesser Fire Magic? Tier? I've never heard of any magic using those terms before." The frown on her face deepened, making Sona look a lot more intimidating.

"Eh? But both Himejima-san and Heiress Gremory over there used Tiered Magic too; **[Dual Thunder Call]** , a Tier 4 spell, and **[Lesser Destruction Blast]** , a Tier 2 spell, respectively." The Gamer responded slowly, a hand rising to cup his chin in thought. "Maybe it's some sort of categorisation system unique to the **[Gamer's Gear]**?"

"My spell was weaker than Akeno's?" Rias arched an eyebrow.

"It was _lower ranked_. That doesn't necessarily mean it was _weaker_." Sona corrected her. "The Bael Family's magic, **[Power of Destruction]** , wasn't given that title for nothing."

"Correct." The Gamer nodded. "In a direct contest of power, I suspect even my most powerful offensive spells, **[Flame Bomb]** and **[Earth Shot]** , would be defeated by the weakest spell that any wielder of the **[Power of Destruction]** could manifest. Himejima-san's spell was the highest ranked spell I have seen since my Sacred Gear granted me the ability to see the names and Tiers of the spells and skills people around me use. Still, is that the strongest spell you can use, Heiress Gremory?"

"It isn't a spell so much as I shape my **[Power of Destruction]** into a blast, the size of which depends on my target, and I just fire it." The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess stated with a shrug. "That's all I've needed to do so far."

"That won't work against someone who is strong enough, Rias." Sona warned her friend. "A Phenex, just as an example, would shrug off your blasts thanks to their immortal regeneration."

"The House of Phenex is another one of the noble houses of the Underworld. They have similar abilities to that of an actual Phoenix, including the ability to almost endlessly regenerate damage, create healing tears, control wind, heat and fire and their wings are always made of shaped fire rather than standard solidified magic." She added as an aside to the Gamer.

"Why would she have to fight a Phenex? That sounded as if you were trying to make a point to her." He asked curiously, his helmed gaze moving slowly between the two heiresses.

"My parents have engaged me to a Phenex, their youngest son in fact." Rias stated sourly. "He's a shameless rake with absolutely no respect for women and an ego that suffocates everyone around him. I'm currently trying every trick in the book to get free of the engagement, but my last option is to face him in a Rating Game, a fight where our Peerages battle one another while in an arena that has spells on it to prevent death or serious maiming. He has a full Peerage and I do not, plus he is an experienced battler in the Rating Games. Add in his Phenex regeneration and it's almost hopeless."

After a moment where he stood stock still, the Red-Armoured Man muttered something under his breath and a window appeared in front of him. With deft, experienced touches at fast speeds, he searched through to find something. It would have looked very weird if they hadn't been able to see the screens he'd manifested.

When he stopped, he chuckled.

"Ha…immortal my foot. A Phenex's regeneration is not almighty. Hit him with some Holy Water and his regeneration gets reduced by three-quarters." He said in triumph.

"Illegal in Rating Games." Sona shook her head.

"Huh…well, there are ways of taking down regenerators in games. Presumably they would work here too." The Gamer mused. "Care to hear my ideas?"

"It's worth a shot." Rias shrugged.

"Well, the first idea, use the weakness of the regeneration, isn't possible because of that rule. So then, the second is to hit him hard enough and fast enough that his regeneration can't keep up with it. I assume that in a Rating Game, taking the opposing [King] down equals defeat for the entire Peerage like it does in chess?"

"That's true, but Raiser isn't a fool; he'll send his Peerage out to fight and only emerge if he catches sight of Rias-buchou." Akeno shook her head. "By that point, ether she'll have been forced to move due to us being defeated or Raiser will have no pieces left and we'll be greatly weakened."

"I'm just stating strategies. It's up to you to work them into your plans." The Gamer shrugged. "Another commonality with regenerators is that often, the regeneration doesn't kick off until whatever made the wound leaved the flesh, so assuming Kiba-san here can sprout swords from the ground to impale this 'Raiser' at the right moment, that should restrain him and prevent his regeneration for a time."

"He'd burn through them with his fire." Sona countered.

The armoured man paused, and quickly looked back down as a new screen appeared. "Kiba-san's Sacred Gear "Sword Birth" allows him to create swords with unique enchantments yes?"

"Correct." Kiba agreed.

"Then why not create swords that nullify or are immune to fire or heat?"

Kiba and Rias both paused to blink in surprise, before Rias slapped a palm to her forehead and started muttering to herself. Kiba himself looked pensive, closing his eyes for a moment. A second later, a longsword with a blade seemingly made from ice emerged from the ground handle first.

"This is called **[Flame Delete].** It nullifies any flame magic and acts as an amplifier for ice magics. It's usually a bit more difficult to craft enchanted swords. I've never tried doing that with anything other than a normal steel sword." Kiba stated thoughtfully. "Though it _is_ certainly possible, especially if I'm only creating a single type multiple times. It's definitely something I can work towards."

"We'll work out a training program for that when we get home." agreed Rias with a firm nod, still internally cursing herself as an idiot, before turning her attention back to the Red-Armoured Man. "Any other ideas?"

"Make the attacks so painful that they cause his mind to shut down." The Gamer suggested. "I don't _care_ if he can regenerate, his mind should have an upper threshold for the amount of pain he can feel."

"True." Rias agreed thoughtfully, a small vindictive smile forming on her lips. Her distaste for her so-called fiancé probably made the idea far more appealing than it should. "Regeneration aside, Raiser is an average young Devil, cocky and arrogant. Most people who face him expect to lose because of his Phenex abilities, so the chances are that he has rarely had to suffer much in the way of pain. Combined with fire-nullifying swords from Kiba to pin him down and we may have a plan."

"Developing a new spell for that situation would take quite some time." Sona pointed out. "Unless Kiba can make a Pain Sword as well, I can't see this as being practical."

The blond boy focused for a moment and a new blade emerged from the ground nearby. It superficially resembled a scimitar, but it had a serrated edge and looked like a torture device. "This is…[Painsedge]. A sword that magnifies any and all sensations of pain by three with every cut."

He looked a bit disturbed. Evidently he had not pushed his ability to create such esoteric swords before this point. Then again, his general attitude was to uphold the code of chivalry, so using swords with such unfair tricks to them would count as something he'd avoid when at all possible.

"That's one possibility." Rias said, her blue eyes gleaming at this, though she frowned slightly in thought. "Though this puts a great deal on Kiba-kun to both lock down and then weaken Riser."

"I have access to a store that lets me buy things. I could look through it for spells for Himejima-san and yourself, Heiress Gremory." The Gamer offered.

"Considering that you're helping me, call me Rias." The redhead said with a smile. "And please do."

It took a couple of minutes for him to find books that suited the situation, but find them he did. For Akeno, he found two; one called **[Thunder Field]** , which allowed the caster to surround the target of her spell with electricity that damaged them over time and caused quite a bit of pain as well, and **[Nervebreaker]** , a thunder spell that directly attacked the nervous system of the target, damaging it and raising the target's pain sensitivity.

In Rias' case, there were not many spells that had anything to do with the **[Power of Destruction]** , but there were two that suited the situation. One was **[Cellular Destruction]** , which used a blast similar to the regular [Power of Destruction] spells that Rias used, but it attacked the target on a cellular level, making their cells explode. It was apparently one of the most painful spells the Gamer had ever seen.

The last spell was **[Destruction Blade]** , a close combat spell that surrounded the user's flattened hand and forearm in the **[Power of Destruction]** , forging a blade that could cut through almost anything if practiced enough. With practice, the characteristics of other spells the caster had access to could be infused into it…such as **[Cellular Destruction]**.

Watching the two Devils 'absorb' the purchased 'skill books' using the Gamer's help, some new function of his Sacred Gear he had unlocked just now apparently, was fascinating for Sona…and worrying. With simple human currency he offered to his Sacred Gear (it _had_ to be. No _way_ was it an actual shop), The Gamer of Gaia could purchase powerful spells and other skills that he could use against his enemies almost immediately, albeit at a fairly weak level. And that was just a _part_ of his Sacred Gear's functions.

As an enemy, he was one of the worst types she could think of; one that could change and adapt to whoever and whatever his enemies were if given enough time and resources. As an ally, she could think of none better. Keep faith with him and he'd support them with everything he had. She was good enough at reading people to see that he was helping Rias because he thought she deserved a chance to fight for her freedom and that he was sympathetic to her plight.

This did earn him some points with her, as she had a soft spot for Rias, even if she didn't let anyone else know about it. Anyone who helped her friend was alright in her book. Sona just hoped that nothing happened to make them have to fight him.

 _Later_

 _Streets of Kuō_

' _Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would._ ' Issei thought in relief as he walked. He was out of his armour and back in his school uniform.

The meeting with the Devils had been on his mind most of the day, to the point that he'd avoided his two friends when they tried to get him to go peeping with them.

The ambush by the ratmen before the meeting had let him get some stress relief in, at least.

Handing over the paperwork from Project Rat King had earned him improved Relationships with both Sona and Rias, while hearing the tales of his fight against the Ratmen and their Breeder had upped his relationships with the rest.

Snikch showing up again like a bad rash had been irritating, but at least it let him really take in exactly how outclassed he was by these Devils. Any one of them could beat his ass six ways to Sunday without even breaking a sweat. Granted, a level was not an absolute indicator of someone's strength, but it could be used as a general measuring stick. Seeing that Rias Gremory's Peerage, as well as Sona Sitri, had the power and stats to make those levels of theirs justified, put an end to any thoughts he might have nurtured about possibly being able to outfight them if they tried to capture him. Tōjō Koneko, the Mascot of Kuō Academy, had not only had a sword shatter off her skin like it was made of Papier Mache, but had then proceeded to punched a ratman in the head so hard that it had been decapitated. Yuuto Kiba, the Prince of Kuō Academy, moved so fast that Issei could barely see his afterimage, and he had a Sacred Gear that let him create swords…demonic _magic_ swords at that.

The three scariest had been Himejima Akeno, Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri. Each possessed powerful magical abilities, and it was clear that they had deliberately chosen weak magical attacks to test the ratmen. **[Dual Thunder Call]** , **[Lesser Destruction Blast]** and **[Rippling Water Blades]** were all less than Tier Five and they were clearly among the weakest spells that the three powerful female Devils had at their disposal. They could wipe him out easily, especially Rias Gremory. Seeing her use her **[Power of Destruction]** had sent fearful chills down his spine; that magic was dangerous!

Still, he had been offended that Rias was being forced to marry some jerk because her parents wanted it. Just what century were here parents in? Was the Devil society really that backward? Helping them in preventing that was the least he could do.

He had quietly asked Kiba that before leaving and the answer was: sort of. Most of the Devil population was up-to-date and modern, but the High-Class Devils, the so-called 'Pillar Families', were very up themselves and concerned the rising number of Reincarnated and lesser Devils compared to constantly shrinking number of Pureblooded Devils. Thus, a law had been forced past the Four Maō by most of the surviving family heads that negated the usual right of the Heiress of a clan to refuse a marriage contract outright, so they would be married to other Pureblooded Devils and making more of them, rather than marrying lesser Devils, or worse (in the older generation's opinion), Reincarnated Devils or other races.

That sucked on _so many_ levels that Issei didn't know what part of it disgusted him more.

Fortunately, some of the more reasonable family heads had ensured that all Heiresses were well within their rights to challenge their intended spouses for the right of refusal. In other words, if the Heiress won, the engagement was dissolved. However, if they lost, the wedding was held immediately. The challenge was thus a double-edged sword.

It sucked. It sucked a lot. From everything that had been said (and everything that hadn't been said), this 'Raiser' guy made him, Motohama and Matsuda combined look like chaste saints by comparison, and mixed that with an extremely unhealthy dose of 'rich douchebag.' He sounded like a right jerk. Someone like Rias Gremory, a beautiful girl who seemed to honestly care for her friends and comrades, deserved better than that.

Still, there was only so much he could do. Helping her get the right spells and the right strategy was the best idea that he'd been able to come up with. Helping her and Akeno learn the spells using the new feature he'd unlocked after using **[Revelation]** and fighting beside the Devils, the **[Tutorial System]** , had been a good idea as well. Using that, he could reduce the number of skill books he could learn from for one day by one and teach someone under the effects of his **[Revelation]** ability up to two skill books.

This meant that for today, he could only learn from one skill book. He had absorbed the **[Sword Talent]** Skill Book last night, which upped the amount of EXP his sword-related skills gain from being used by 10%, which stacked with his **[Learned Wisdom]** skill's +20% boost. He decided to save the last use for today for one that he might acquire at the place he was heading to now.

Stopping at the corner, Issei peered around it to see a large abandoned factory…which it was on the surface. In reality, it was the hidden location of Project Rat Poison, the counter to Project Rat King, which had been used to create the ratmen. If there was anywhere that 'Agent Flamberge' was likely to be, it was this place. If not, he could perhaps get a clue or two about how to track the ratmen to their new burrows.

Whatever was in this place, it had to be dealt with, and soon. He could tell that the Devils were getting nervous about these Purifiers, and they might act before he could find out enough. Without the information in the maps he had though, they should have no idea where to look before he was actively fighting. Hopefully, that would give him the time he needed to ransack the place and find out everything he needed to know.

Transforming into his combat outfit, he ghosted towards the gate, rusted and padlocked shut, and slashed it open with his gladius.

 **[Dungeon Discovered!]**

 **You have discovered the dungeon [Ruins of Purity] (LV16)!**

 **You gain 400 EXP!**

 **Do you wish to enter this dungeon?**

 **Warning: Entering this dungeon whilst being three or more levels beneath the minimum level displayed is dangerous to your life.**

 **Y|N**

OK, quite why it gave that warning, even although he was only one below the recommended level, was bizarre, but whatever. He'd roll with it.

Resolutely hitting the 'Y' key, he advanced forwards, the gates swinging shut behind him with a metallic clang.

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 **Next Chapter: Versus Humans**

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